30th  Congress, 
ls£  Session. 


[SENATE.] 


Ex.  Doc., 
No.  30. 

— '■  '■  . rip 


IN  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


MESSAGE 

FROM 

THE  PRESIDENT, 

COMMUNICATING 

The  correspondence  between  the  United  States  minister  at  London 
and  authorities  of  the  British  government ,  in  relation  to  a  postal 
arrangement  between  the  two  countries. 


March  27,  1848. 

Referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Post  Office  and  Post  Roads,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 


Washington,  March  21th ,  1848. 

To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  : 

I  transmit  herewith  a  report  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  with  ac¬ 
companying  documents,  in  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the 
Senate  of  the  17th  instant,  requesting  the  President  to  communicate 
to  that  body  “  copies  of  a  correspondence  between  the  minister  of 
the  United  ^States  at  London  and  any  authorities  of  the  British 
government,  in  relation  to  a  postal  arrangement  between  the  two 
countries.” 

JAMES  K.  POLK. 


Department  of  State, 
Washington ,  2±th  March ,  1848. 

The  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  has  been  referred  the  resolution 
of  the  Senate  of  the  17th  instant,  requesting  the  President  to  com¬ 
municate  to  that  body,  “copies  of  the  correspondence  between  the 
minister  of  the  United  States  at  London,  and  any  authorities  of  the 
British  government,  in  relation  to  a  postal  arrangement  between 
the  two  countries,”  has  the  honor  to  report  to  the  President  the  ac¬ 
companying  copies  of  papers. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

JAMES  BUCHANAN. 

To  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


[30] 


2 


LIST  OF  PAPERS. 


]y[r.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston,  dated  18  June,  1847. 
Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston, 

Same  to  same, . 

Same  to  same, . 

Mr.  Maberly  to  Mr.  Bancroft,... 

Lord  Palmerston  to  same, . 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Brodhead, 

Mr.  Brodhead  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Claricarde  to  Mr.  Brodhead, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Same  to  same, . 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde,  • 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Same  to  Lord  Palmerston, . 

Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde, 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 

Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston, 


cc 

22 

u 

(c 

cc 

30 

a 

(( 

cc 

12 

July, 

C( 

cc 

16 

August, 

u 

) 

cc 

17 

u 

u 

cc 

27 

u 

u 

cc 

31 

u 

u 

cc 

13 

Sept., 

u 

cc 

a 

u 

u 

cc 

15 

ec 

u 

cc 

25 

a 

u 

cc 

30 

a 

u 

cc 

4 

Oct’r., 

(( 

cc 

5 

a 

u 

cc 

7 

u 

(( 

cc 

13 

u 

u 

cc 

14 

(( 

u 

cc 

18 

(( 

ec 

cc 

22 

u 

a 

cc 

23 

a 

cc 

cc 

22 

u 

C( 

CC 

21 

Dec’r., 

cc 

cc 

7 

Feb.,  1848 

cc 

10 

cc 

cc 

11 

a 

cc 

cc 

14 

a 

cP 

cc 

15 

u 

cc 

cc 

18 

u 

cc 

u 

21 

u 

cc 

4 


[30] 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston . 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipoten¬ 
tiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  begs  leave  to  draw  the  at¬ 
tention  of  Viscount  Palmerston,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary 
of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  to  a  recent  order  from  the  post  office 
department  of  this  kingdom. 

The  United  States  having  undertaken  by  authority  of  Congress, 
at  the  expense  of  the  United  States  Treasury,  through  the  Post¬ 
master  General  of  the  United  States,  to  institute  a  mail  service  and 
carry  a  mail  between  the«American  port  of  New  York  and  the  En¬ 
glish  port  of  Southampton,  the  British  postmaster  general  has 
issued  an  order  to  charge  every  letter  and  newspaper  thus  brought, 
in  addition  to  the  American  rates  paid  for  their  conveyance  across 
the  Atlantic  in  American  steamers,  the  full  British  packet  rates  that 
would  have  been  chargeable  if  they  had  been  brought  by  British 
steamers. 

The  undersigned,  inquiring  on  this  subject,  first  at  the  foreign 
office,  and  next  at  the  general  post  office,  has  been  informed  that 
the  design  of  this  charge  is  the  protection  of  the  British  line  of 
mail  steamers  and  the  revenue  derived  from  that  line. 

The  undersigned  has  further  understood,  that  the  levying  of  this 
extra  charge  is  not  made  obligatory  by  act  of  pePrliament,  but  that 
a  discretion  on  the  subject  rests  with  her  Majesty’s  government. 

Esteeming  the  order  referred  to  inequitable  in  itself;  specially 
unequal  with  regard  to  the  United  States;  contrary  to  international 
comity;  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  existing  conventions  between  the 
two  countries;  contrary  to  the  wise  policy  of  existing  laws;  con¬ 
trary  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  two  countries;  and  con¬ 
trary  to  the  interests  of  the  respective  British  and  American  post 
office  establishments,  the  undersigned ‘begs  leave,  earnestly.,  to  urge 
upon  her  Majesty’s  government,  the  propriety  of  immediately  re¬ 
voking  it;  and,  until  a  full  postal  convention  shall  be  entered  into, 
to  agree,  as  America  has  already  agreed,  that  on  letters  brought 
indo  the  respective  countries,  no  charge  shall  be  levied  by  either 
party,  but  for  a  service  which  that  party  has  actually  rendered. 

The  undersigned  is  fully  persuaded  that  perseverance  in  the 
measure  adopted  by  the  British  postmaster  general,  would,  by  the 
action  of  irresistible  influences,  in  the  end,  certainly  fail  to  in¬ 
crease  the  British  revenue  from  the  mail  service.  But  he  invites 
Lord  Palmerston’s  attention  to  the  subject  on  other  grounds. 

The  measure  is  objected  to  by  the  undersigned,  as  in  itself  con¬ 
trary  to  equity.  For  the  British  post  offices  to  charge  the  British 
packet  postage  on  letters  which  British  packets  have  not  carried, 
is  to  reap  where  it  has  not  sown;  to  seek  to  appropriate  profits 
justly  due  to  others. 

The  Atlantic  is  not  a  close  sea.  The  right  to  carry  letters  be¬ 
tween  England  and  the  United  States  does  not  belong  to  England 
exclusively.  Yet  the  British  post  office  insists  that,  u  if  vessels 
are  employed  by  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  convey 
post  letters,”  the  British  packet  postage  u  will  be  chargeable  on 


4 


[30] 

letters  conveyed  by  such  vessels  between  the  United  Kingdom  and 
the  United  States.” 

The  first  principles  of  justice  imply  that  the  wages  are  due  to 
those  who  perform  the  work;  where  British  packets  perform  it,  to 
the  British  revenue;  where  the  American  packets  perform  it,  to  the 
American  revenue. 

The  want  of  equity  in  the  instructions  alluded  to  becomes  the 
more  conspicuous  when  held  in  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  Amer¬ 
ica.  The  British  mails  by  the  British  packets  to  Canada,  and  from 
Canada,  are  carried  by  the  United  States  Post  Office  Department 
between  Boston  and  St.  Johns,  in  closedi  bags  and  boxes,  by  an 
extraordinary  and  most  speedy  conveyance,  without  any  other 
charge  than  that  of  the  American  inland  postage  between  those 
points.  There  is  no  super-addition  of  ship  charges,  or  packet 
charges,  or  any  other  charges;  and  the  inland  postage  is  fixed  by 
the  most  liberal  construction  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  Post 
Office  Department,  at  the  very  lowest  rate  of  postage.  On  the 
letters  and  papers  brought  by  the  British  post  office  line,  and  dis¬ 
tributed  from  Boston  throughout  the  United  States,  no  other  charge 
is  added  than  that  of  the  usual  inland  postage.  On  the  first  of  this 
month,  when  the  British  mail  steamer  u  Britannia,”  and  the  Amer¬ 
ican  mail  steamer  u  Washington,”  were  to  sail  on  the  same  day 
for  England,  the  ^advertisements  of  the  American  Post  Office  De¬ 
partment  announced,  side  by  side,  that,  on  letters  by  the  Britan¬ 
nia,  the  American  inland  postage  only  was  to  be  paid;  that,  on  let¬ 
ters  by  the  Washington,  the  packet  postage  also,  must  be  previ¬ 
ously  paid. 

America  made  no  packet  charge  on  letters  sent  by  the  British 
packet,  and  she  believes  herself  justified  in  expecting  that  no 
packet  charge  will  be  made  here  on  letters  sent  by  the  American 
packet.’ .•  The  American  Post*  Office  Department  limits  its  charge  to 
the  service  it  renders,  and  it  believes  itself  justified  in  expecting 
that  the  British  post  office  department  will,  in  like  manner,  limit 
its  charge  to  the  service  it  renders. 

The  imposition  of  British  packet  postage  on  letters  brought  by 
American  government  packets,  appears  to  the  undersigned  contrary 
to  the  usual  comity  of  nations.  T^he  undersigned  is  not  aware  of 
any  instance,  where  government  packets  have  passed  respectively 
between  two  nations,  and  where  one  of  those  nations  has  claimed 
to  levy  the  packet  postage  on  both  lines  for  its  own  exclusive  ben- 
efit. 

The  undersigned  inclines  to  the  belief  that  the  recent  act  of  the 
British  postmaster  general  is  as  little  sanctioned  by  precedent,  as 
by  natural  equity.  So  entirely  did  the  American  Post  Office  De¬ 
partment  rely  on  this  comity,  that,  believing  that  the  British  post 
office  department  was  fully  aware  of  the  establishment  of  the  Ameri. 
can  line,  and  relying  in  unhesitating  confidence  on  the  disposition 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  reciprocate  the  liberal  treatment  re¬ 
ceived  on  the  other,  the  American  Postmaster  General  did  not  deem 
it  necessary  to  send  an  agent  in  advance,  to  make  a  formal  notifica¬ 
tion  of  his  arrangements,  and  his  views. 


5 


[30] 

The  measure  referred  to  is  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
commercial  convention  of  the. 3d  July,  1815,  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain.  That  convention  agrees,  that  no  charge 
whatever  shall  be  imposed  on  the  importation  or  exportation  of 
any  article  to,  or  from,  the  United  States,  other  than  such  as  is 
payable  on  the  importation  or  exportation  of  the  same  article  to  or 
from  any  other  foreign  country. 

It  is  designed  to  place  the  United  States  on  the  footing  of  the 
most  favored  nations.  It  is  a  violation  of  the  spirit  of  this  agree¬ 
ment  that,  while  France  very  properly  derives,  exclusively ,  all  the 
pecuniary  benefits  of  its  own  packet  service,  the  British  post  office 
should,  for  the  benefit  of  the  British  revenue,  levy  the  full  British 
packet  postage  on  letters  and  papers  conveyed  by  the  American 
government  packets. 

The  order  of  the  British  postmaster  general  is  also  still  more 
plainly  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  existing  laws.  The  under¬ 
signed  applauds  the  frankness  with  which  it  has  been  avowed  to 
him,  what,  indeed,  is  of  itself  apparent,  that  the  object  of  the 
measure  was  to  protect  the  line  of  British  packets,  and  the  British 
revenue  derived  from  them.  And  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  meas* 
ure,  if  persevered  in,  and  not  met  by  retaliatory  measures  on  the 
part  of  America,  is  thoroughly  well  adapted  to  accomplish  its  end. 
The  super-addition  of  the  British  packet  postage  to  the  American 
packet  postage  is,  virtually,  a  discrimination  in  favor  of  British 
packets  so  onerous,  as  to  be  actually  prohibitory  in  its  character. 
And  this  is  done  at  the  very  time  when  a  liberal  legislation  is  raising 
the  imports  of  America  from  England  to  an  extent  without  a  par¬ 
allel,  and  while  America  is  indulging  the  belief  that  England  sees 
that  increase  with  satisfaction. 

A  protective  system,  that  has  existed  for  centuries,  may  plead  its 
length  of  years  as  its  excuse  for  lingering  on  in  a  gradual  decline; 
hut  shall  the  system  of  monopoly  be  revived  and  applied  where  it 
never  was  applied  before?  Shall  it  be  applied  in  a  manner  at  once 
to  inflict  an  injury  on  the  American  government,  and  to  embarrass 
the  intercourse  of  the  American  merchants  and  people  with  their 
correspondents  in  England?  The  natural  consequences  of  such  an 
attempt  at  monopoly  on  the  part  of  the  British  government  are  too 
obvious  to  need  comment. 

Moreover*  the  undersigned  may  unhesitatingly  believe  that  Lord 
Palmerston  does  not  look  for  the  chief  benefits  of  the  post  office 
system  in  the  mere  revenue  which  it  yields.  Great  Britain  has 
honorably  distinguished  itself  by  a  most  liberal  domestic  postal 
system,  and  not  only  so,  it  has  led  the  way  in  improving  the  inter¬ 
national  postal  system  of  the  European  continent,  and  has  done 
this  plainly  in  the  primary  view  to  promote  commercial,  social,  and 
literary  and  scientific  intercourse.  No  nation  has  more  openly 
proclaimed  by  its  acts  its  consciousness  that  international  corres¬ 
pondence  sets  in  motion  international  commerce.  Every  mailbag, 
by  every  packet  from  America  to  England,  promotes  the  commer¬ 
cial  and  manufacturing  prosperity  of  this  island.  Is  it  of  para¬ 
mount  importance  to  this  government  to  embarrass  that  correspon- 


6 


[30] 

dence,  in  the  hope  of  a  most  uncertain  gain  to  the  post  office 
revenue  ?  Why  should  American  correspondence  be  received  less 
favorably  in  England  than  on  the  continent?  Why  should  any 
portion  of  it  be  resisted  and  thrown  back  by  a  prohibitory  tax? 

The  undersigned  points  to  the  acts  of  his  own  government  as 
leaving  no  doubt  of  its  readiness  to  continue  and  perfect  a  just  and 
liberal  policy  in  postal  arrangements.  If  it  be  not  continued  and 
improved,  the  undersigned  takes  this  occasion  to  say  that  the  fail¬ 
ure  to  establish  it  reciprocally,  and  all  the  consequences  of  such  a 
failure,  must  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  reluctance  of  her  Majesty’s 
government. 

In  conclusion,  the  undersigned  renews  his  request,  that  the 
United  Kingdom  would,  in  this  affair  of  their  respective  mail  pack¬ 
ets,  treat  the  United  States  as  the  United  States  treat  the  United 
Kingdom;  that  is  to  say,  that,  until  a  formal  postal  convention  be¬ 
tween  the  two  countries  is  framed,  it  would  charge  no  more  than 
the  usual  inland  postage  on  the  letters  and  papers  transmitted  to 
and  from  the  United  States,  through  the  government  packets  of  the 
United  States. 

The  undersigned  takes  this  occasion,  &c., 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

Legation  of  the  United  States,  June  18,  1847. 


Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Bancroft . 

Foreign  Office,  June  22,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary  of  state  for 
foreign  affairs,  has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  of¬ 
ficial  note  addressed  to  him  on  the  18th  instant  by  Mr.  Bancroft, 
envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States  of  America  at  this  court,  calling  the  attention  of  her  Maj¬ 
esty’s  government  to  a  recent  order  which  has  been  issued  by  the 
British  post  office,  directing  that  every  letter  and  newspaper, 
brought  to  England  by  the  steam  vessels  employed  by  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  carry  mails  between  New  York  and 
Southampton,  shall  be  charged  with  the  full  British  .packet  rates 
that  would  have  been  chargeable  thereon  if  they  had  been  brought 
by  British  steam  vessels. 

The  undersigned  has  to  inform  Mr.  Bancroft  that  he  has  referred 
his  note  upon  this  subject  to  the  proper  department  of  her  Majes¬ 
ty’s  government;  and  he  has  the  honor,  &c., 


PALMERSTON. 


7 


[30] 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston. 

United  States  Legation, 

London ,  June  30,  1847. 

My  lord:  I  am  sure  your  lordship  will  excuse  me  for  pressing 
upon  your  attention  the  official  note  which  I  had  the  honor  to  ad¬ 
dress  to  you  on  the  18th  instant.  I  am  compelled  to  invite  thejm- 
mediate  decision  of  her  Majesty’s  government  upon  the  contents 
of  that  note,  as  the  United  States  packet  ship  Washington  is  now 
at  Southampton,  and  it  is  important  for  that  vessel,  for  those  who 
intend  to  send  letters  by  it,  and  above  all,  for  the  United  States 
government,  to  be  informed  as  soon  as  possible  of  the  decision  of 
her  Majesty’s  government  respecting  the  imposition  to  which  I 
have  called  your  lordship’s  attention. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston. 

United  States  Legation, 

London ,  July  12,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipoten¬ 
tiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  begs  leave  to  express  to 
Viscount  Palmerston,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary  of  state  for 
foreign  affairs,  his  great  regret  that  the  time  appointed  for  the  sail¬ 
ing  of  the  United  States  mail  steamer  Washington,  from  South¬ 
ampton  to  New  York,  arrived,  and  yet  that  no  reply  was  received 
by  the  undersigned  to  his  communications  of  the  18th  and  of  the 
30th  of  June,  relating  to  the  protective  tax  imposed  by  an  order 
from  the  British  post  office  department  upon  letters  sent  by  that 
steamer. 

The  undersigned  cannot  but  regard  the  subject  as  one  calling  for 
immediate  consideration.  The  United  States  desire  the  most  libe¬ 
ral  postal  arrangements  with  the  United  Kingdom;  such  as  will 
foster  friendly  intercourse  and  promote  commerce  between  the  two 
nations.  In  that  view,  the  United  States  ask  and  offer  reciprocity, 
on  the  most  liberal  basis.  But  if  her  Majesty’s  government  refuse 
that  basis,  and  insist  upon  a  discrimination  in  favor  of  its  own 
mails,  a  duty  will  still  remain  to  be  performed  by  the  undersigned, 
in  order  that  the  United  States  may,  at  the  earliest  day,  be  free 
from  existing  stipulations. 

The  undersigned  desires  to  acquaint  Lord  Palmerston,  and 
through  him  the  appropriate  branches  of  her  Majesty’s  govern¬ 
ment,  that  Mr.  S.  Reeve  Hobbie,  the  first  assistant  postmaster  gen¬ 
eral  of  the  United  States,  is  now  in  London,  and  that  with  the  co¬ 
operation  of  Mr.  Hobbie,  as  special  agent  and  deputy  of  the  United 
States  Postmaster  General,  the  undersigned  has  full  powers  for 


8 


[  30  ] 

settling  all  questions  relating  to  the  postal  intercourse  between  the 
United  States  and  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  undersigned  avails  himself,  &c. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston. 

90  Eaton  Square,  August  16,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipoten¬ 
tiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  begs  leave  once  more  to 
call  the  attention  of  Viscount  Palmerston,  her  Majesty’s  principal 
secretary  of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  to  the  subject  of  a  postal  ar¬ 
rangement  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  During 
the  time  that  the  letter  of  the  undersigned,  of  June  18,  to  Lord 
Palmerston,  has  remained  without  any  answer  from  her  Majesty’s 
government,  the  undersigned  has  had  time  to  write  to  his  own  gov¬ 
ernment,  and  to  receive  answers  twice  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

To  make  the  whole  subject  entirely  easy  of  arrangement,  the 
undersigned  has  this  day  terminated  the  partial  postal  arrangement 
which  heretofore  existed,  not  with  the  disposition  to  refuse  to  the 
British  government  the  advantages  enjoyed  under  it,  but  to  renew 
it  on  a  broader  basis,  having  equal  reference  to  both  nations. 

The  communication  by  letters  and  papers  and  packets  between 
the  two  continents,  is  considered  by  the  United  States  not  merely 
as  a  source  of  revenue,  but  is  still  more  highly  prized  as  the  chan¬ 
nel  through  which  business  is  increased,  affection  cherished,  and 
intelligence  communicated  between  America  and  Europe. 

The  undersigned  is  therefore  instructed  to  offer,  on  the  part  of 
his  government,  the  most  liberal  reciprocal  arrangements.  If 
Great  Britain  can  devise,  and  will  offer  more  liberal  reciprocal 
terms,  the  undersigned  doubts  not  his  ability  to  accept  them  forth¬ 
with.  Exact  equality  is  the  only  sine  qua  non  on  which  he  must 
insist.  If,  which  he  cannot  believe,  Great  Britain  prefers  a  policy 
of  impediments,  the  undersigned  has  only  to  remind  the  British 
government,  that  in  interposing  impediments,  those  impediments, 
or  others  warranted  by  them,  will  be  adopted  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water.  # 

And  that  Lord  Palmerston  may  be  able  to  state  precisely  what 
the  undersigned  esteems  as  a  liberal  reciprocal  arrangement,  (being 
only  most  happy  if  her  Majesty’s  government  can  devise  and  will 
propose  a  more  liberal  one,)  the  undersigned  proposes: 

The  letters  and  newspapers  shall,  as  near  as  may  be,  come  to 
the  receiver  of  them  whether  in  the  United  States,  or  in  England, 
in  Canada,  the  West  Indies,  Mexico,  and  other  parts  of  America, 
or  on  the  continent,  or  other  islands  of  Europe,  charged  with  the 
same  postage,  whether  brought  by  the  English  steamer,  or  by  the 
American  steamer  across  the  Atlantic. 

Each  post  office  may  charge  on  the  letters  and  packets  received 


9 


[30] 

respectively  from  the  steamers  of  the  other  for  distribution  within 
its  own  country,  its  own  inland  postage,  but  shall  superadd  no 
post  office  charge,  or  packet  charge,  or  ship  charge,  or  any  other 
charge  whatsoever. 

On  newspapers  or  printed  matter  so  received  and  distributed, 
the  United  States  shall  not  charge  more  than  three  farthings  a 
newspaper,  or  a  sheet,  and  Great  Britain  shall  not  charge  more 
than  one  penny,  whether  distributed  in  their  respective  countries, 
or  forwarded  through  them. 

For  Canada,  or  for  the  West  Indies,  and  other  parts  of  America 
for  which  the  United  States  have  mails,  letters  and  packets  re¬ 
ceived  from  British  steamers,  shall  be  forwarded  by  the  United 
States  post  office  with  no  charge  but  that  which  would  be  charged 
on  similar  letters  and  packets  mailed  by  an  American  citizen  resi¬ 
dent  at  the  place  of  arrival  of  the  British  steamer,  and  vice  versa. 
Letters  for  the  continent,  or  other  parts  of  Europe,  received  from 
American  steamers,  shall  be  forwarded  with  no  other  charge  than 
the  charge  on  similar  letters  and  packets  mailed  by  a  British 
citizen  resident  at  the  port  at  which  the  American  steamer  may 
arrive. 

The  United  States  will  forward  closed  mails  from  Britain 
through  the  United  States  to  Canada,  and  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
other  countries  in  America,  in  so  far  as  the  United  States  have  es¬ 
tablished,  or  shall  establish  lines  to  them,  and  Great  Britain  shall, 
in  like  manner,  forward  closed  mails  from  the  United  States  to  the 
continent  of  Europe,  where  Great  Britain  has  established,  or  shall 
establish  lines,  subject  to  postage  as  above,  to  be  adjusted  in  the 
usual  manner. 

It  shall  be  a  constant  instruction  from  each  government  to  its 
post  office  department  to  preserve  the  most  perfect  equality  in  all 
arrangements,  and  this  being  provided  for  to  further  in  the  freest 
manner  postal  intercourse  between  the  two  countries. 

Inasmuch  as  the  United  States  are  from  principle  opposed  to 
deriving  any  revenue  from  the  mail  service  beyond  its  expenses, 
the  undersigned  is  prepared  further  to  agree  that  it  shall  be  open 
to  either  party  to  propose  a  reduction  of  postage,  and  in  the  event 
of  the  refusal  of  the  other  party  to  agree  to  such  reduction,  the 
party  proposing  it  may  proceed  to  reduce  its  own  packet  charges. 

If  these  principles  are  agreed  to  by  her  Majesty’s  government, 
all  details,  especially  relating  to  the  transmission  of  letters  with 
or  without  pre-payment  of  postage,  and  the  consequent  regulation 
of  accounts,  may  be  left  to  arrangement  between  the  two  depart¬ 
ments,  without  further  troubling  the  lords  of  the  treasury. 

The  undersigned  avails  himself,  &c.. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


[30] 


10 


Mr.  Maberly  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

General  Post  Office. 

August  17,  1847. 

Sir  :  In  the  absence  of  the  Postmaster  General,  I  have  the  honor 
to  acknowledge  the  receipt  from  your  excellency,  yesterday,  of  a 
notice  given  by  the  Postmaster  General  of  the  United  States,  in 
pursuance  of  the  power  reserved  to  him  by  the  seventh  article  of 
the  agreement  of  the  14th  February,  1845,  and  in  which  he  is 
pleased  to  declare  that  such  agreement  as  well  as  all  other  agree¬ 
ments  in  existence  between  the  post  office  of  Great  Britain,  or 
with  any  of  the  subordinate  officers,  and  the  post  office  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  determined  and  annulled  from  and  after 
three  calendar  months  from  the  delivery  of  this  notice. 

As  I  understand  that  all  agreements  of  every  description  be¬ 
tween  the  post  offices  of  the  United  States  and  those  of  the  North 
American  provinces  are  annulled  by  this  notice,  I  shall  communi¬ 
cate  it  to  the  various  deputy  postmaster  generals  in  those  provinces, 
desiring  them,  to  comply  with  its  provisions. 

Although  the  subject  is  not  expressly  mentioned,  I  presume 
from  the  terms  of  the  notice,  the  United  States  post  office  relin¬ 
quishes  the  privilege  which  it  now  possesses  of  transmitting  its 
correspondence  unpaid  to  the  North  American  provinces,  and  ob¬ 
taining  the  postage  due  to  it  by  means  of  the  postmasters  of  those 
colonies. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  & c., 

W.  MABERLY. 

His  excellency,  George  Bancroft,  &c.,  &c.,  &c., 

United  States  Legation . 


Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

The  undersigned,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary  of  state  for 
foreign  affairs,  has  the  honor  to  inform  Mr.  Bancroft,  envoy  ex¬ 
traordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  of 
America  at  this  court,  that  he  has  received  from  the  proper  de¬ 
partment  of  her  Majesty’s  .government  a  letter  which  enables  him 
to  answer  the  note  addressed  to  him  by  Mr.  Bancroft,  of  the  18th 
of  June  last,  on  the  subject  of  an  order  which  has  been  issued  by 
,  the  General  Post  Office  stating  that  letters  and  newspapers,  either 
brought  to  England  from  the  United  States,  or  despatched  from 
England  to  the  Unitexl  States  by  way  of  Southampton,  in  the 
steam  vessels  employed  by  the  government  of  the  United  States  to 
carry  mails  between  New  York  and  Southampton,  are  liable  to  be 
charged  with  the  full  amount  of  the  British  packet  rates  of  postage 
which  would  be  chargeable  thereon  if  such  letters  were  conveyed 
by  British  packets. 

The  undersigned  now  begs  leave  to  explain  that  the  post  office 
order,  above  referred  to,  did  not  introduce  any  new  rate  of  postage,. 


11  [  30  ] 

«* 

specially  imposed  to  meet  the  particular  case  of  the  employment 
of  American  steam  vessels  to  carry  mails  between  New  York  and 
Southampton.  But  the  object  of  the  notice  so  issued  by  her  Ma¬ 
jesty’s  Postmaster  General  was  to  inform  the  postmasters  through¬ 
out  the  kingdom  that  the  American  vessels  in  question  were 
packets ,  and  that  the  rates  of  packet  postage,  and  not  the  ordinary 
rates  of  ship  letter  postage  ought,  therefore,  to  be  charged  upon 
letters  conveyed  by  those  packets. 

The  undersigned  begs  also  to  state  that  the  levying  of  this 
charge  is  rK)t  a  new  measure,  but  is  made  simply  in  fulfilment  of 
the  ordinary  law  applicable  to  such  cases  ;  for  the  act  of  the  3d 
and  4th  Victoria,  cap.  96,  expressly  declares  that  all  letters  not 
weighing  more  than  half  an  ounce  which  shall  be  transmitted  by 
the  post  between  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  United  States  of 
North  America,  shall  be  chargeable  with  an  uniform  rate  of  one 
shilling,  and  the  71st  section  of  the  same  act  provides  that  the 
expression  u  by  the  post”  shall  be  understood  as  including  the 
transmission  of  post  letters  by  packet  boats.  The  undersigned 
would  beg  also  to  explain  that  the  United  States  is  not  the  only 
country  to  which  the  abovementioned  act  has  been  applied,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  the  regulation  by  which  packet  postage  is 
charged  upon  letters  and  newspapers  conveyed  by  foreign  packets, 
has  been  invariably  acted  upon  in  regard  to  letters  conveyed  by 
the  mail  packets  of  all  foreign  countries.  The  last  occasion  on 
which  this  regulation  was  so  applied  happened  in  1844,  when  the 
Belgian  government,  having  established  packets  to  run  twice  a 
week  between  Dover  and  Ostend,  letters  conveyed  by  those 
packets  were  ordered  to  be  charged  with  precisely  the  same  rates 
of  postage  which  are  chargeable  on  letters  conveyed  by  British 
mail  packets. 

But  Mr.  Bancroft  conceives  that  letters  conveyed  by  the  Ameri¬ 
can  packets  ought  to  be  charged  in  this  country  with  the  inland 
rates  of  postage  only;  and  he  states  that  when  the  American  Post 
Office  Department  established  those  packets,  they  felt,  no  doubt, 
that  the  letters  carried  by  those  packets  would  be  so  dealt  with. 

But  the  undersigned  begs  to  remark  that  the  Postmaster  General 
of  the  United  States,  in  a  memorandum  which  he  transmitted  on 
the  26th  December  last  tp  the  British  minister  at  Washington,  with 
reference  to  a  proposed  arrangement  for  the  conveyance  of  mails 
between  New  York  and  Montreal,  said  that  uthe  Postmaster  Gen¬ 
eral  of  the  United  States  is  desirous  that  a  mutual  arrangement  be 
made  between  the  two  governments,  that  will  dispense  with  the 
charge  of  ship  postage  on  the  letters  brought  into  the  respective 
countries  by  the  mail  lines  of  each;  that  is,  that  such  postage  shall 
not  be  charged  in  the  United  States  on  letters  brought  into  them 
by  the  Cunard  line  of  steamers,  and  that  it  shall  not  be  charged  in 
Great  Britain  on  letters  taken  into  it  by  the  mail  steamers  in  the 
employment  of  the  government  of  the  United  States;”  and  the  un¬ 
dersigned  would  observe  that  this  passage  seems  to  show  that  the 
United  States  post  office  was  at  that  time  aware  that,  under  the 
existing  regulations  of  the  British  post  office,  letters  brought  to  the 


12 


[30] 

United  Kingdom  by  American  packets,  would  be  chargeable  with 
postage  for  sea  conveyance,  or  what  the  Postmaster  General  of  the 
United  States  calls  u  ship  postage,”  in  addition  to  inland  postage. 

Mr.  Bancroft  further  remarks,  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  charges  only  the  inland  rate  of  postage  on  the  British  closed 
mails  to  and  from  Canada;  but  the  undersigned  would  beg  to  -ob¬ 
serve,  that  the  transit  rate  which  is  paid,  by  agreement,  for  this 
correspondence,  was  fixed  without  any  regard  to  the  inland’rates 
of  postage  charged  in  the  United  States  on  letters  conveyed  to  and 
from  Canada;  for  Mr.  Wickliffe,  then  Postmaster  Ger*eral  of  the 
United  States,  with  whom  the  agreement  was  concluded,  stated 
that  the  terms  wThich  he  demanded  were  founded  upon  the  arrange¬ 
ment  made  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  for  the  conveyance 
of  the  Indian  mails  through  the  French  territory. 

It  is,  indeed,  true  that  one  of  the  articles  of  the  agreement,  re¬ 
specting  the  Canada  postage,  provided  that  if  the  rates  of  postage 
in  the  United  States  should  be  reduced  by  law,  the  payment  stip¬ 
ulated  to  be  made  by  Great  Britain  should  be  adjusted  so  as  not  to 
exceed  the  rates  of  postage  which  would  be  charged  upon  the  let¬ 
ters,  if  they  were  posted  in  the  United  States.  But  this  provision 
was  qualified  by  a  clause,  stipulating  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  thet  no  reduction  of  this  rate  of  postage  should  be  made 
which  would  bring  down  the  aggregate  amount  paid  by  Great  Bri¬ 
tain,  so  as  to  make  it  less  than  the  cost  of  conveyance;  and  her 
Maj  esty’s  government  have  lately  received  an  account  from  the 
United  States  post  office,  in  which  the  transit  rate  to  be  paid  for 
the  Canadian  closed  mails  is  reduced  to  the  amount  of  the  inland 
rate  charged  in  the  United  States,  for  the  distance  over  which 
those  mails  are  carried,  with  an  addition  of  twenty-five  per  cent, 
to  cover  the  loss  supposed  to  be  sustained  by  the  United  States 
post  office,  in  consequence  of  the  letters  being  weighed  in  bulk  in¬ 
stead  of  singly. 

Mr.  Bancroft  also  states,  that  upon  the  letters  and  papers  brought 
by  the  British  post  office  steamers,  and  distributed  from  Boston 
throughout  the  United  States,  no  other  charge  is  made  than  that  of 
the  usual  inland  postage.  But  it  would  appear  that  Mr.  Bancroft 
has  not  been  correctly  informed  upon  this  point;  because  a  charge 
for  ship  letter  postage  is  made  upon  every  letter  contained  in  the 
British  mails,  the  amount  being  six  cents  for  each  letter  delivered 
in  Boston,  and  two  cents  for  each  letter  delivered  in  any  other 
part  of  the  United  States,  the  charge  in  the  latter  case  being,  of 
course,  added  to  the  inland  postage. 

The  undersigned  begs  leave,  in  conclusion,  to  assure  Mr.  Ban¬ 
croft  that  her  Majesty’s  government,  so  far  from  being  disposed  to 
deal  illiberally  with  the  United  States  in  this  matter,  have,  on  the 
contrary,  favored  that  country  with  regard  to  the  postage  charged 
upon  its  correspondence;  for,  in  1839,  when  her  Majesty’s  govern¬ 
ment  reduced  the  packet  postage  on  letters  to  and  from  the  British 
American  provinces,  from  2s.  2d.  to  Is.,  (in  which  latter  sum  \vas 
included  all  charge  for  inland  conveyance  within  the  United  King¬ 
dom,)  that  reduction  of  postage  was  extended  to  letters  conveyed 


13 


[30] 

to  and  from  the  United  States;  and,  although  her  Majesty’s  gov¬ 
ernment  do  not  usually  grant  such  advantages  to  foreign  countries 
without  requiring  reciprocal  reductions  in  favor  of  Great  Britain, 
no  such  demand  was  on  that  occasion  addressed  to  the  United 
States;  and  this  reduction  took  place  some  time  before  the  general 
reduction  of  postage  on  the  British  colonial  correspondence. 

The  undersigned  takes  this  opportunity  of  informing  Mr.  Ban¬ 
croft,  that  he  has  had  the  honor  to  receive,  and  that  he  has  referred 
to  the  proper  department  of  her  Majesty’s  government,  Mr.  Ban¬ 
croft’s  note  of  the  16th  of  August,  stating  the  terms  upon  which 
he  has  been  authorized  by  his  government  to  propose  that  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  should  conclude  an  arrangement  for 
the  transmission  of  mails  between  the  two  countries. 

The  undersigned  has  the  honor,  &c., 

PALMERSTON. 

Foreign  Office,  Augusts 7,  1847. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston ,  August  28,  1847. 

Mr.  Bancroft,  the  American  minister,  has  received  Viscount 
Palmerston’s  answer  of  yesterday  to  his  note  of  the  l&Th  of  June, 
and  in  consequence  of  it  desires  a  conference  with  Lord  Palmer¬ 
ston.  Learning  that  Lord  Palmerston  will  come  to  town  to-mor¬ 
row,  Mr.  Bancroft  begs  leave  to  ask  a  short  interview  at  his  lord¬ 
ship’s  earliest  convenience. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston ,  August  31,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipo¬ 
tentiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  having  received  from 
Viscount  Palmerston,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary  of  state  for 
foreign  affairs,  a  note,  dated  the  27th  instant,  in  reply  to  the  letter 
of  the  undersigned  of  the  18th  of  June  last,  complaining  of  the 
double  postage  imposed  on  letters  brought  to  England  in  American 
packets,  the  undersigned  desired  a  conference  with  Lord  Pal¬ 
merston,  in  the  hope  of  effecting  an  immediate  practical  result. 

Having,  this  day,  had  such  conference,  and  Lord  Palmerston 
having  informed  the  undersigned  of  the  necessity  Lord  Palmerston 
is  under  of  consulting  another  department  of  government  before 
giving  a  reply,  and  having  invited  the  undersigned  to  reduce  what 
he  had  to  say  to  writing,  he  seizes  the  earliest  moment  to  do  so. 

On  the  12th  of  July  last,  the  undersigned  announced  to  Lord 
Palmerston  that  Mr.  Hobbie,  the  First  Assistant  Postmaster  General 
of  the  United  States,  being  in  London,  the  undersigned  was  pre¬ 
pared  to  assist  in  making  a  postal  arrangement  between  America 
and  the  United  Kingdom.  On  the  16th  of  this  month,  the  under¬ 
signed  communicated  to  Lord  Palmerston  the  terms  which  he  is 


14 


[30] 

authorized  by  the  American  government  to  propose.  These  terms 
Lord  Palmerston  has  now  under  consideration.  The  delay  in  pro¬ 
ceeding  with  the  negotiation  has  not  rested  with  the  undersigned. 
Pending  the  negotiation,  the  undersigned  proposes  that  her  Ma¬ 
jesty’s  government  should  suspend  the  action  of  the  post  office 
order,  No.  9,  of  June,  1847,  imposing  double  postage  on  letters 
brought  by  American  packets;  in  which  case  the  undersigned  will 
undertake,  in  return,  that  pending  the  negotiation,  the  United 
States  will  omit  the  retaliatory  measure  of  double  postage  on 
English  and  Canadian  letters,  which  otherwise  must  take  place. 
Lord  Palmerston  was  pleased  to  say  that  Great  Britain  would  have 
no  ground  to  complain  of  such  retaliatory  measures;  but  the  under¬ 
signed  will  certainly  complain  greatly  if  circumstances,  beyond  his 
control,  put  upon  him  the  most  irksome  necessity  of  recommending 
them. 

The  undersigned  having  thus  found  himself  obliged  to  make  this 
further  communication  on  the  subject  of  postal  arrangements,  is 
constrained  to  repeat  what  he  had  the  honor  to  say  to  Lord  Pal¬ 
merston,  that  the  explanations  contained  in  Lord  Palmerston’s 
note,  of  the  27th  instant,  will  be  far  from  reconciling  the  govern¬ 
ment  and  people  of  the  United  States  to  the  British  imposition  of 
double  postage  on  letters  conveyed  in  American  packets. 

Lord  Palmerston  refers  to  the  act  of  the  3d  and  4th  Victoria, 
chapter  96,  as  the  authority  for  the  double  charge.  But  it  is 
agreed  that  a  discretion  rests  with  the  treasury  board  in  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  that  authority;  and,  indeed,  the  United  States,  of  all 
nations  in  the  world,  are  now  alone  singled  out  to  suffer  from  the 
imposition  of  double  postage. 

Lord  Palmerston,  it  is  true,  remarks  that  this  regulation  was  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  Belgian  packets  in  1844.  But  it  could  have  been  only 
as  an  experiment,  and  for  an  exceedingly  short  period.  The  expe¬ 
riment  must,  at  once,  have  failed,  for  Belgian  and  English  packets 
ply,  and  have  long  plied,  indiscriminately  between  Dover  and 
Ostend,  and  the  postage  in  England  for  receiving  or  transmitting 
a  letter  is  no  higher  by  the  Belgian  than  by  the  English  steamer. 
The  precedent  of  Belgium  is  then  against  the  imposition  of  the 
double  charge. 

Lord  Palmerston  appears  to  think  that  the  Postmaster  General 
of  the  United  States  must  have  been  prepared  for  the  imposition  of 
double  postage,  because  he  proposes  there, should  be  no  charge  of 
ship  postage  at  all  in  either  country.  The  undersigned  cannot  see 
why  Mr.  Johnson  should* have  expected  his  fair  and  candid  propo¬ 
sition  should  have  been  summarily  dismissed.  The  undersigned 
had,  till  now,  supposed  Mr.  Johnson’s  offer  could  not  have  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  British  government.  The  undersigned  can¬ 
not  but  express  surprise  that  so  fair  and  candid  a  proposition, 
conveyed  through  the  estimable  British  minister  at  Washington, 
should  have  had  for  its  answer  a  post  office  order  imposing  double 
postage,  without  any  notification  to  the  American  government 
whatever. 

But  surprise  becomes  still  greater  when  Lord  Palmerston  seeks 


15 


[30] 


to  invalidate  the  allusion  of  the  undersigned  to  the  indisputable 
fact,  that  on  the  British  closed  mails,  to  and  from  Canada,  the 
United  States  charge  only  inland  postage.  Lord  Palmerston’s 
argument  is,  that  the  transit  rate  was  fixed  without  any  regard  to 
the  inland  rates  of  postage  in-  the  United  States.  Lord  Palmer¬ 
ston  can  have  been  but  partially  informed  on  this  subject.  The 
people  of  the  United  States,  taking  into  consideration  the  establish¬ 
ed  rates  of  postage,  and  desirous  to  manifest  their  disposition  to 
live  in  special  good  neighborhood  wTith  England,  and  thinking  their 
high  rates  of  postage  might  be  an  obstacle  to  intercourse  across 
their  territory,  freely  and  purposely  authorised  Mr.  Wickliffe,  then 
the  Postmaster  General,  to  adopt  a  lower  transit  rate  for  England 
than  was  paid  by  Americans  themselves.  But  the  people  of  the 
United  States  did  not  forsee  that  Lord  Palmerston  would  make 
this  discrimination  of  the  United  States  in  favor  of  letters  trans¬ 
mitted  from  British  packets  through  America,  a  reason  for  the 
imposition  of  double  postage  on  lettters  transmitted  from  American 
packets  through  England. 

But  as  the  contract  referred  to  provided  for  a  still  further  reduc¬ 
tion  of  the  transit  rates,  if  a  general  reduction  of  the  American 
rates  should  make  the  regular  postage  less  than  the  rates  fixed 
in  the  agreement  with  England,  Lord  Palmerston  next  finds  in  the 
contract  reference  to  the  American  inland  rates  of  postage;  but  finds 
also  the  provision  qualified  by  a  clause  stipulating  indemnity  to  the 
United  States  against  loss.  The  answer  is  plain:  the  contract  was 
so  qualified  only  because  her  Majesty’s  government  first  qualified 
it  by  stipulating  for  extraordinary  means  of  conveyance,  at  uncer¬ 
tain  times  and  at  extraordinary  speed. 

Lord  Palmerston  is  quite  right  in  supposing  the  undersigned  not 
to  have  been  correctly  informed  as  to  the  charge  of  two  cents  on 
letters  brought  into  the  United  States  by  ships  from  abroad.  It  is 
true  that  by  the  act  of  Congress  of,  3d  March,  1825,  two  cents  on 
each  of  such  letters  are  exacted;  but  the  law  had  its  motive  not  in 
the  interest  of  the  public  treasury,  but  in  the  desire  to  promote  in¬ 
tercourse  with  all  nations.  The  little  pittance  of  ship  money  thus 
collected  is  paid  to  the  ship  master,  if  not  a  public  officer.  The 
United  States  government  is  not  at  liberty  to  pay  the  public  officers 
of  other  countries,  and  is  entitled  to  the  service  of  its  own.  If  this 
little  charge,  so  small  in  amount  as  to  be  almost  imperceptible, 
less,  per  cent.,  in  amount,  than  the  extreme  variation  in  the  legal 
valuation  of  the  pound  sterling  in  the  United  States,  continues  to 
be  charged  on  some  part,  and  some  part  only,  of  letters  brought  by 
the  Cunard  line,  it  is  only  because  her  Majesty’s  government  has* 
not  given  attention  to  the  repeatedly  expressed  wish  of  America 
to  abolish  it. 

.  Lord  Palmerston  finally  urges,  as  evidence  of  British  liberality, 
that  Great  Britain  did  America  the  favor *  to  reduce  postage  on 
American  letters  from  2s.  2d.  to  Is.  for  America  as  well  as  for  the 
British  provinces.  Great  Britain  at  great  cost  long  supported  a 
colonial  mail.  At  length  it  reduced  the  postage;  improved  the  mail 
service;  extended  it  to  the  United  States;  and  the  mails  increased 


16 


[30] 


perhaps  more  than  a  hundred  fold;  so  that  what  had  been  an  exces¬ 
sive  burthen  on  the  British  Treasurybecame  a  remunerating  busi¬ 
ness.  The  undersigned  rejoices  that  it  proved  so.  Every  one  must 
feel  satisfaction  at  this  result.  But  why  should  this  system  be  spo¬ 
ken  of  as  one  of  privileges  and  favors !  It  is  rather  the  testimony 
of  experience  against  the  system  of  privilege,  protection,  and  fa¬ 
vor,  and  in  support  of  liberal  reciprocity  and  the  offices  of  good 
neighborhood. 

The  undersigned  renews  the  proposition  that  pending  the  nego¬ 
tiation  for  a  postal  arrangement,  her  Majesty’s  government  should 
suspend  the  exaction  of  double  postage  on  letters  conveyed  by 
American  packets;  the  undersigned  offering,  in  return,  that  the 
United  States  will,  in  that  case,  pending  the  negotiation,  forego  the 
retaliatory  measures  which  Lord  Palmerston  has  very  candidly  ob¬ 
served  it  would  be  the  perfect  right  of  America  to  adopt,  without 
giving  any  cause  of  complaint  to  this  government,  with  which  the 
undersigned  is  instructed  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly  relations. 

The  undersigned  takes  the  occasion,  &c. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


United  States’  Legation, 

90  Eaton  Square ,  31s£  August ,  1847. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Brodhead. 

Carlton  Terrace, 

September  13,  1847. 

Lord  Clanricarde  presents  his  compliments  to  Mr.  Brodhead,  and 
has  the  honor  to  inform  him  that  Lord  Clanricarde  is  about  to 
submit  to  her  Majesty’s  government  the  basis  upon  which  he  may 
be  authorized  to  propose  to  Mr.  Bancroft,  upon  that  Minister’s 
return  to  London,  a  new  postal  convention  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States. 

He  wishes  to  lose  no  time  in  making  this  communication  to  I\Jr. 
Brodhead,  because  he  thinks  it  probable  that  Mr.  Brodhead  may 
be,  in  consequence  of.it,  desirous  to  withdraw  the  notice  lately 
given  by  Mr.  Bancroft  to  the  British  post  office,  to  terminate  all 
existing  postal  conventions  between  the  two  countries.  For  that 
notice  may  occasion  expense  and  trouble,  which,  if  incurred,  may 
delay  the  conclusion  of  a  convention,  and  must  be  useless,  if  the 
•  ^propositions  of  her  Majesty’s  government  should  prove  acceptable 
to  the  minister  of  the  United  States. 


17 


[30] 


Mr.  Brodhead  to  Lord  Clanricarde . 

90  Eaton  Square, 

13 tk  September ,  1847. 

Mr.  Brodhead  presents  his  compliments  to  the  Marquis  of  Clanri¬ 
carde,  and  has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  his  Lord¬ 
ship’s  note  of  this  day.  Mr.  Brodhead  will  lose  no  time  in  com¬ 
municating  to  Mr.  Bancroft  Lord  Clanricarde’s  suggestion  res¬ 
pecting  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the  notice  lately  given  to  the 
British  post  office,  to  terminate  all  existing  postal  conventions 
between  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  United  States. 

But,  in  the  meantime,  Mr.  Brodhead  begs  leave  to  state  to  Lord 
Clanricarde,  that,  in  a  note  which  Mr.  Bancroft  addressed  to  Lord 
Palmerston  on  the  31st  of  August  last,  in  reply  to  a  communication 
from  his  Lordship  of  the  27th  of  that  month,  Mr.  Bancroft  himself 
suggested  that  “pending  the  negotiation,  the  undersigned  proposes 
that  her  Majesty’s  government  should  suspend  the  action  of  the 
post  office  order  No'  9,  of  June,  1847,  imposing  double  postage  on 
letters  brought  by  American  packets;  in  which  case  the  under¬ 
signed  will  undertake  in  return,  that,  pending  the  negotiation,  the 
United  States  will  omit  the  retaliatory  measure  of  double  postage 
on  English  and  Canadian  letters,  which  must  otherwise  take  place. 

•  _ 

Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Brodhead. 

General  Post  Office, 

September  15,  1847. 

Lord  Clanricarde  presents  his  compliments  to  Mr.  Brodhead. 
Mr.  Bancroft  and  Mr.  Brodhead  are  under  a  misapprehension  if 
they  imagine  that  any  new  rate,  whatever,  has  been  imposed  upon 
letters  brought  to  England  in  American  packets  by  any  order  of 
the  British  government  in  1847. 

The  rates  to  be  levied  upon  letters  brought  from  the  United 
States  of  America,  either  in  government  packets  or  in  private  ships, 
were  settled  by  law  some  years  ago.  The  British  government  vol¬ 
untarily  and  spontaneously  lowered  those  rates  from  their  former 
to  their  present  amount  in  1839.  No  change  in  the  postage  to  be 
paid  by  letters  carried  in  packets  has  taken  place  since  that  time; 
but  the  establishment  of  a  new  packet  by  the  United  States  govern¬ 
ment  has  led  to  a  novel  application,  in  the  present  year,  of  the 
rate  established  eight  years  since. 

Lord  Clanricarde  will  be  obliged  if  Mr.  Brodhead  will  let  him 
know  Mr.  Bancrofts  decision,  as  soon  after  it  has  reached  him  as 
may  be  convenient,  because  Lord  Clanricarde  has  transmitted  to 
the  deputy  postmaster  general  of  Canada,  instructions  not  to  re¬ 
ceive  unpaid  letters  sent  from  the  United  States  into  Canada  after 
the  16th  of  November,  and  to  take  other  steps,  which  will  be  ren- 

2 


18 


[30] 

dered  necessary,  if  the  notice  given  to  the  British  post  office  should 
*  continue  in  force. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

Paris,  September  25,  1847. 

My  Lord:  Mr.  Brodhead  has  forwarded  to  me,  at  this  place, 
your  loadship’s  two  notes  of  September  13th  and  15th.  I  arrived 
here  but  last  evening,  and  I  give  the  best  pledge  of  my  desire  to 
regulate  our  postal  affairs,  promptly  and  practically,  by  avoiding 
further  discussion,  giving  up  the  purpose  of  my  visit  here,  and  re¬ 
turning  to  London  forthwith.  I  shall,  accordingly,  on  an  intima¬ 
tion  that  an  interview  is  desirable,  be  ready  to  wait  upon  your 
lordship  at  your  house,  or  at  the  general  post  office,  on  the  morning 
of  Wednesday  next,  at  any  hour  that  may  be  agreeable  to  you,  in 
the  hope  of  coming  to  a  practical  result. 

Meantime, ‘  I  assure  your  lordship,  I  shall  exceedingly  depre¬ 
cate  the  necessity  of  retaliatory  measures  on  our  part.  My  repug¬ 
nance  to  them  is  extreme.  The  American  government  desires  to 
avoid  them.  The  American  people,  who  hold  all  their  servants  to 
a  strict  and  swift  responsibility,  in  small  things  as.  well  as  in  great, 
desire  the  continuance  of  neighborly  offices  between  the  two  coun¬ 
tries,  and  wish  me  to  contribute  to  their  continuance,  t  have,  ac¬ 
cordingly,  for  more  than  three  months  past,  earnestly"  pressed  for 
the  formation  of  a  postal  arrangement  to  settle  every  question.  In 
July  I  called  to  London  the  American  First  Assistant  Postmaster 
General,  in  view  of  immediately  framing  one.  Seeing  that  the 
usages  of  the  British  government. brought  delay,  I  offered,  through 
Lord  Palmerston,  in  August  last,  in  behalf  of  America,  to  forego 
retaliatory  measures  during  the  negotiation,  if,  in  return,  the  post 
office  order  of  June  last,  inflicting  a  double  postage,  should  be  at 
once  suspended  till  the  negotiation  fails  or  succeeds. 

I  do  not  conceal  from  myself  that  the  British  government  will 
be  immensely  the  gainer  in  such  a  provisionary  arrangement,  as  we 
have  one  packet,  and  England  many;  but  the  offer  is  right  in  prin¬ 
ciple,  and,  therefore,  the  American  people  will  approve  it.  The 
answer  to  my  offer  must  govern  my  conduct. 

So  soon  as  I  receive  your  lordship’s  counter  proposition  for  a 
new  postal  convention,  be  assured,  my  lord,  it  shall  receive  my  in¬ 
stant  attention. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c.,  &c. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  the  Marquis  of  Clanricarde, 

$rc.,  fyc.y  fyc. 


19 


[30] 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 


G.  P.  O.,  September  30,  1847. 

Dear  Sir:  I  send  you  a  paper  containing  the  propositions  which 
we  discussed  yesterday. 

I  think  you  will  find  them  reasonable,  and  well  calculated  for 
the  object  we  have,  each  of  us,  in  view. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c., 


G.  Bancroft,  Esq.,  #-c.,  fyc. 


CLANRICARDE. 


[Enclosure.] 

Her  Majesty’s  government  proposes  to  negotiate  a  postal  con¬ 
tention  with  the  United  States,  which,  at  the  same  time  that  it  will 
afford  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  countries  the  greatest  facilities 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  the  rate  of  postage  as  it  existed 
previous  to  the  establishment  of  the  United  States  packets,  will  be 
founded  upon  principles  of  perfect  reciprocity. 

The  services  demanded  for  the  maintenance  of  such  a  communi¬ 
cation  between  the  two  countries,  are  a  conveyance  of  the  corres¬ 
pondence  within  their  territories  by  their  internal  posts,  and  its 
transmission  by  means  of  packets  across  the  Atlantic;  the  expenses 
of  the  first  description  of  service,  applying  equally  to  both  coun¬ 
tries,  upon  all  the  letters  transmitted,  the  cost  of  the  latter  falling 
upon  that  country  alone  by  which  the  packet  conveyance  has  been 
furnished. 

Entertaining  these  views  upon  the  subject,  her  Majesty’s  gov- 
.  ernment  proposes: 

1st.  That  there  shall  be  levied,  as  the  amount  of  postage  on 
every  letter  originating  in  Great  Britain  addressed  to  the  United 
States,  and  vice  versa ,  a  combined  rate  of  one  shilling  and  four 
pence  for  each  single  letter  not  exceeding  half  an  ounce,  and  so  on 
in  proportion,  according  to  the  scale  in  operation  in  Great  Britain, 
of  which  sum,  four  pence  shall  represent  the  inland,  and  one  shil¬ 
ling  the  packet  rate  of  postage. 

2d.  That  the  payment  of  this  combined  rate  shall  be  optional  in 
either  country. 

3d.  That  each  country  shall  retain  that  portion  of  the  combined 
rate,  representing  the  inland  postage,  which  it  shall  collect,  whether 
on  paid  or  unpaid  letters,  but  that  with  respect  to  the  portion  re¬ 
presenting  the  packet  postage,  it  shall  belong  to  that  country  by 
which  the  packet  conveying  the  letter  has  been  furnished. 

4th.  That  each  country  shall  account  to  the  other,  at  the  rate  of 
one  shilling  the  half  ounce,  and  so  on  in  proportion,  &c.,  for  such 
paid  or  unpaid  letters  transmitted  between  the  two  countries,  the 
postage  upon  which  shall  not  be  collected  by  the  country  furnish¬ 
ing  the  packet. 

5th.  That  the  rate  of  transit  postage,  to  be  paid  upon  letters 
transmitted  through  either  country,  shali  be  the  same  as  that  levied 


20 


[30] 

upon  international  letters,  and  shall  be  regulated  by  the  same  prin¬ 
ciples  as  those  laid  down  for  that  class  of  correspondence;  but  that 
in  addition  to  such  international  rate  there  shall  be  levied  the  rate 
of  foreign  or  colonial  postage,  payable  by  the  subjects  of  the  coun¬ 
try  through  which  the  transit  correspondence  passes  on  letters  ad¬ 
dressed  to  similar  destinations.  This  foreign  or  colonial  rate, 
however,  is  to  be  calculated  from  or  to  the  port  of  arrival  or  de¬ 
parture  of  the  foreign  or  colonial  packet. 

6th.  That  each  country  shall  grant  to  the  other  the  conveyance 
of  closed  mails  through  its  territories  in  Europe  or  America.  The 
rate  of  postage  to  be  charged  on  such  correspondence  shall  be  the 
same  as  that  levied  on  ordinary  transit  letters,  except  that  it  shall 
be  taken  by  the  net  weight,  and  by  the  ounce;  the  ounce  to  be 
charged  as  two  single  rates  in  addition  to  twenty-five  per  cent,  on 
the  amount  of  postage,  to  compensate  the  loss  that  would  otherwise 
be  sustained  by  this  mode  of  computation. 

7th.  That  optional  payment  of  postage  shall  be  established  on 
letters  between  the  United  States  and  British  North  America;  the 
United  States  to  take  the  existing  rates  of  five  and  ten  cents,  ac¬ 
cording  to  distance,  and  two  rates  to  be  fixed  upon  in  British  North 
America,  so  calculated  as  to  be  within,  on  the  average,  the  present 
rates  in  those  provinces. 

Should  the  United  States  avail  itself  of  the  privilege  of  sending 
its  closed  mails  through  the  British  North  American  provinces,  the 
amount  of  transit  postage  to  be  paid  shall  be  calculated  on  these 
rates,  according  to  distance,  and  also  on  the  principle  as  to  weight, 
&c.,  laid  down  for  closed  mails,  in  the  preceding  paragraph.  This 
arrangement  not  to  be  affected  by  the  post  office  department  in  the 
North  American  provinces  being  placed  under  colonial  manage¬ 
ment. 

Note. — The  existing  rates  of  postage  in  the  United  States  are  5 
cents  and  10  cents,  according  to  whether  the  distance  to  which  the 
letter  is  conveyed  is  over  or  under  three  hundred  miles. 

Assuming  the  cent  to  be  equivalent  in  amount  to  one-half  penny, 
the  average  of  these  two  rates  is  3fd,  but  four-pence  has  been 
taken  in  this  memorandum  as  the  average  rate,  for  the  sake  of 
avoiding  fractions. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

Carleton  Terrace,  October  4,  1847. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  going  out  of  town  this  afternoon,  for  the  week. 
I  shall  return  on  Saturday,  and  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer 
will  come  lo  London  on  Monday  to  remain. 

I  do  not  suppose  you  will  desire  to  see  me  before  that  time;  but 
if  such  should  be  the  case,  I  will  come  up  for  a  few  hours,  any  day, 
■without  inconvenience. 

The  more  you  consider  the  propositions  I  have  had  the  honor  to 


4 


21 


[30] 

submit  to  you,  the  more  I  think  you  will  be  inclined  to  approve 
them;  and  if  we  agree  upon  the  main  basis  of  the  sea  rate  to  be 
paid  to  the  packet  which  may  perform  the  service,  and  the  inland 
rate  to  be  divided  equally  between  the  two  countries,  and  to  be  an 
uniform  rate,  I  have  no  doubt  the  details  of  our  convention  may 
be  easily  and  satisfactorily  arranged. 

I  remain,  my  dear  sir,  your  very  faithful  servant, 

CLANR1CARDE.  * 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

October  5,  1847. 

My  dear  Lord:  Agreeably  to  my  promise,  I  have  given  instant 
attention  to  your  “  project. ”  Mr.  Hobbie,  at  my  instance,  came 
immediately  to  London,  and  we  spent  yesterday  in  examining  the 
American  laws,  and  discussing  your  propositions.  Your  note  of 
the  4th  came  just  as  I  was  writing;  we  were  ready  to  meet  your 
lordship  for  some  definite  arrangement.  The  chancellor  of  the  ex¬ 
chequer  is  already  in  town,  will  be  here  all  this  week,  is  ready  to 
act  upon  the  subject  at  once,  and  thinks  we  might  settle  every  thing 
in  a  few  hours.  I  should  like  to  finish  my  part  of  the  busi¬ 
ness  this  week.  Mr.  Hobbie,  the  American  First  Assistant  Post¬ 
master  General,  came  to  England  on  this  business  in  July  last,  and 
is  expected  to  return  home  about  the  20th  of  this  month.  We  shall 
send  you  our  reply  to  your  project  to-morrow,  and  can  we  not  meet 
with  the  chancellor,  if  necessary,  on  Thursday,  and  at  a  long  ses¬ 
sion  finish  most  of  the  preliminary  matter  1 

The  proposition  in  your  lordship’s  paper,  and  that  in  the  note  of 
yesterday,  each  differs  from  the  one  made  on  Wednesday.  On  that 
day  you  proposed  one-third  uniform  rate;  one  shilling  for  the  party 
performing  the  sea  conveyance,  the  three  pence  for  the  other.  This 
might  form  the  basis  of  our  arrangement,  if  also  applied  to  transit 
postage,  which  the  “project”  makes  too  high  for  British  interests, 
as  well  as  for  our  convenience.  We  shall  go  to  the  utmost  verge 
in  favor  of  uniform  postage,  anticipating  a  similar  spirit  of  accom¬ 
modation. 

I  remain,  my  dear  lord,  yqurs,  very  faithfully, 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


[Left  at  Downing  street,  Wednesday,  October  6,  1847.] 

Reply  to  the  British  project  of  a  postal  convention. 

The  American  government,  in  its  postal  arrangement  with  her 
Majesty’s  government,  agrees  in  desiring  the  greatest  facilities  for 
correspondence  between  the  two  countries,  seeks  to  diminish,  rather 


K 


22 


[30] 

than  increase,  the  present  rates  of  postage,  and  offers  and  accepts 
u  principles  of  perfect  reciprocity”  as  the  basis  of  an  arrangement. 

The  service  requires  inland  carriage  in  America;  sea  conveyance 
and  inland  carriage  in  the  British  isles.  The  sea  conveyance  is  the 
same  for  both.  The  inland  carriage  differs  in  distance;  and  from 
difference  in  density  in  population,  in  cost,  and  in  productiveness. 
The  distance  from  Liverpool  to  the  remotest  point  in  the  British 
isles  is  but  a  few  hundred  miles.  From  Boston  to  Mobile,  New 
Orleans,  Galveston  and  Austin,  is  further  by  the  mail  routesthan  from 
London  to  Constantinople,  Smyrna  and  Cairo.  Many  post  offices 
in  the  United  States  are  as  far  asunder  as  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
Atlantic.  A  penny  postage  in  England  yields  a  revenue.  A  post¬ 
age  in  America  of  five  cents  and  ten  cents,  leaves  the  post  office 
still  a  heavy  burthen  on  the  treasury.  Her  Majesty’s  government 
is  fully  aware  of  these  things;  it  has  introduced  the  penny  postage 
in  Great  Britain  but  not  in  Canada. 

Reply  to  the  first  proposition. 

The  simplest  reciprocity  arrangement  is  one  uniform  sea  rate, 
with  option  of  pre-payment,  and  each  nation  to  regulate,  to  collect 
and  to  appropriate  its  own  inland  postage,  with  the  condition  that 
the  rates  shall  be  equal  for  the  letters  brought  by  the  respective 
packets  of  the  two  nations.  This  is  strictly  in  conformity  with  the 
reciprocity  treaty  of  1815. 

Or,  the  American  government  will  accept  Lord  Clanricarde’s  pro¬ 
position,  made  on  Wednesday,  September  29th,  to  Mr.  Bancroft,  of 
one  uniform  rate  of  is.  3d  ,  with  option  of  pre-payment;  the  shil¬ 
ling  to  go  to  the  nation  which  carries  the  letter  by  sea.  the  three 
pence  to  the  other,  provided  this  uniform  rate  is  extended  to  transit 
correspondence,  as  hereinafter  proposed. 

Or,  provided  this  uniform  rate  is  extended  to  transit  correspond¬ 
ence,  as  hereinafter  proposed,  the  American  government  will  ac¬ 
cept  three  pence  as  the  American  inland  rate,  nine  pence  as  the. sea 
rate,  and  three  pence  as  the  English  inland  rate,  and  divide  the  in¬ 
land  rates  equally.  The  proposition  that  the  letter  of  a  merchant 
in  New  Orleans  should  be  sent  from  New  Orleans  to  Boston,  and 
thence  to  London,  by  the  Cunard  line,  for  Is.  3d.,  and  the  United 
States  to  have  of  that  sum  but  1  \d.  is  not  approved  of. 

On  the  other  hand,  1  \d.  is  more  than  enough  for  sending  a  letter 
from  Glasgow  to  Southampton.  One  shilling  is  enough  to  remuner¬ 
ate  the  nation'which  carries  the  letter  by  sea,  for  whatever  it  may 
have  to  do  in  the  way  of  receiving  or  delivering  it  on  land. 

It  is  further  to  be  remarked  that  two  cents  are  a  very  little  less 
than  a  penny;  that  if  America  collects  at  two  cents,  the  penny  in 
England,  in  sterling  money,  England  should  account  to  America  at 
484  cents  the  pound  sterling,  and  America  to  England  at  480  cents 
the  pound  sterling;  one  shilling  being  24}  cents,  and  a  pound  being 
not  480,  but  484  cents. 


23 


[30] 


Reply  to  the  second  proposition. 

It  is  agreed  that  payment  of  this  combined  rate  shall  be  optional 
in  either  country.  * 

Reply  to  the  third  proposition. 

The  inland  postage,  like  the  sea  postage,  should  be  mutually  ac¬ 
counted  for,  and  not  depend  on  the  accident  of  collection.  For 
further  answer  on  this  point,  see  reply  to  first  proposition. 

Reply  to  the  fourth  proposition. 

It  is  agreed  that  the  uniform  rate  of  postage  shall  be  charged  on 
the  letter,  according  to  the  scale  observed  in  England.  But  to  ac¬ 
count,  one  government  to  the  other,  by  weight,  is  deemed  objec¬ 
tionable,  for  the  reason  that  that  mode  will  not  give  a  full  and 
exact  account  of  the  postages  collected,  inasmuch  as  letters  gener¬ 
ally  fall  short  of  the  maximum  weight  at  which  they  are  rated,  and 
more  postages  are  collected  than  the  aggregate  weight  would  indi¬ 
cate.  It  is,  therefore,  proposed  to  render  the  account  according 
to  the  number  of  letters,  counting  a  double  letter  as  two,  and  so  on; 
that  is  according  to  the  actual  number  of  postages. 

Reply  to  the  fifth  proposition. 

The  uniform  rate  of  one  shilling  and  three  pence  should  cover 
the  transit  charge  on  letters  for  foreign  countries  or  colonies,  and 
no  further  charge  should  be  made  on  such  letters,  except  that  pro¬ 
portion  of  the  foreign  charges  which  goes  to  the  foreign  govern¬ 
ment.  - 

Reply  to  the  sixth  proposition. 

This  proposition  as  to  closed  mails  is  agreed  to,  provided  the 
transit  rate  is  limited,  as  above  suggested,  to  three  pence,  excluding 
all  the  foreign  postage  excepting  that  proportion  of  it  which  goes 
to  the  foreign  government,  and  which  the  United  States  may  have 

the  liberty  to  regulate  with  that  government. 

% 

Reply  to  the  seventh  proposition. 

The  proposition  for  optional  payment  between  America  and 
British  North  America  is  agreed  to,  on  condition  that  the  two  rates 
of  postage  to  be  adopted  for  British  North  America  shall  not  ex¬ 
ceed  those  of  the  United  States  in  amount,  in  proportion  to  dis¬ 
tance. 


[30] 


24 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft . 

October  7,  1847. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  but  just  Received  your  letter,  together  with 
one  from  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer. 

I  think  we  had  better  fix  two  o’clock  on  Saturday  to  meet  in 
Downing  street. 

I  am  sorry  I  did  not  clearly  explain  the  propositions  contained 
in  the  paper  I  sent  to  you,  and  -which  was  before  me  during  our 
conversation. 

The  only  difference  I  can  see  between  us  is,  that  in  your  letter 
you  say:  “  the  Is.  for  the  party  performing  the  sea  conveyance, 
the  3d.  to  the  other meaning,  I  presume,  other  party.  What  I 
am  authorized  to  propose,  and  what  I  hoped  I  had  stated  clearly 
was,  Is.  sea  rate;  and  3d.,  inland  or  other  rate — the  sea  rate  to 
go  to  the  packet  which  actually  conveys  the  letter,  the  inland  to 
be  divided;  which  division  I  proposed  to  effect  by  each  country  re¬ 
taining  the  inland  rates  it  received.  This,  I  think,  is  perfect  reci¬ 
procity  and  uniform  rate. 

I  remain,  my  dear  sir,  truly  yours, 

CLANRICARDE. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

October  13,  1847. 

The  American  minister  presents  his  compliments  to  her  Majesty’s 
postmaster  general,  and  being  engaged  in  preparing  a  protest 
against  the  post  office  order  No.  9,  of  June  last,  begs  leave  to  be 
precisely  informed  what  sum  is  exacted  on  each  letter  of  half  ounce 
or  less,  brought  by  the  United  States  mail  steamer  Washington,  and 
delivered  by  her  Majesty’s  packets  at  Havre. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

October  14,  1847. 

The  postmaster  general  presents  his  compliments  to  the  American 
minister,  and,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Bancroft’s  note  of  yesterday,  has  the 
honor  to  inform  him  that  the  charge  upon  letters  brought  from 
America  by  the  mail  packet  “Washington,”  and  transmitted  to 
France,  is  not  levied  letter  by  letter,  but  by  weight,  en  masse.  The 
sum  paid  to  the  British  post  office  is  regulated  by  the  postal  con¬ 
vention  of  1843,  and  fixed  at  four  francs  per  ounce,  net  weight. 
Her  Majesty  has  no  packets  to  Havre. 


25 


[30] 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

October  18,  1847. 

My  Dear  Lord:  We  have,  on  our  side,  sufficiently  considered 
your  lordship^s  suggestions  made  on  Monday,  last,  and  if  you  are 
prepared  to  enter  on  the  adjustment  of  the  transit  rates,  we  are 
ready  to  act  definitively  on  the  whole  subject.  If  that  be  agreeable 
to  you,  we  propose  to  wait  upon  you  on  Tuesday,  at  any  hour  you 
may  name,  or  on  any  other  early  day  on  which  you  may  be  dis¬ 
posed  to  resume  our  efforts  at  a  satisfactory  arrangement. 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr  Bancroft . 


General  Post  Office,  October  22,  1847. 


Dear  Sir:  I  find  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  an  official  com¬ 
munication  upon  the  progress  of  our  negotiation,  in  due  form,  and 
through  the  foreign  office,  in  time  for  you  to  send  it  home  by  the 
u  Washington.’7  But  I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  a  memorandum 
similar  to  that  which  I  have  already  given  you,  but  which  states, 
more  exactly,  the  views  that  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  I 
entertain,  and  which  may  be  said  to  represent  those  of  our  govern¬ 
ment,  upon  the  points  upon  which  I  hope  I  may  consider  we  are 
agreed,  and  upon  those  which  remain  for  discussion. 

I  remain,  &c. 


CLANRICARDE. 


r 

[Enclosure.] 

Her  Majesty’s  government  proposes  to  negotiate  a  postal  conven¬ 
tion  with  the  United  States  which,  at  the  same  time  that  it  will 
afford  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  countries  the  greatest  facilities 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  the  rate  of  postage,  as  it  existed 
previous  to  the  establishment  of  the  United  States  packets,  will  be 
founded  upon  principles  of  perfect  reciprocity. 

The  service  demanded  for  the  maintenance  of  such  a  communica¬ 
tion  between  the  two  countries  are  a  conveyance  of  the  corres¬ 
pondence  within  their  territories,  by  their  internal  posts,  and  its 
transmission  by  mean's  of  packets  across  the  Atlantic;  the  expenses 
of  the  first  description  of  service  applying  equally  to  both  countries 
upon  all  the  letters  transmitted;  the  cost  of  the  latter  falling  upon 
that  country  alone  by  which  the  packet  conveyance  has  been 
furnished. 

Entertaining  these  views  upon  the  subject,  her  Majesty’s  govern¬ 
ment  proposes: 


26 


L  30 1 

1st.  That  there  shall  be  levied,  as  the  amount  of  postage,  on 
every  letter  originating  in  Great  Britain  addressed  to  the  United 
States,  and  vice  versa,  a  combined  rate  of  one  shilling  and  two 
pence.  Two  pence  inland  rate  to  be  paid  to  each  country,  and  ten 
pence  sea  rate  to  that  country  whose  packet  may  caxjy  the  letters, 
upon  all  letters  not  exceeding  in  weight  half  an  ounce. 

2d.  That  the  payment  of  this  combined  rate  shall  be  optional  in 
either  country. 

3d.  That  each  country  shall  retain  that  portion  of  the  combined 
rate  representing  the  inland  postage  which  it  shall  collect,  whether 
on  paid  or  unpaid  letters ;  but  that,  with  respect  to  the  portion 
representing  the  packet  postage,  it  shall  belong  to  that  country  by 
which  the  packet  conveying  the  letter  has  been  furnished. 

4th.  That  each  country  shall  account  to  the  other  at  the  rate  of 
one  shilling  the  half  ounce,  and  so  on  in  proportion,  &c.,  for  such 
paid  or  unpaid  letters  transmitted  between  the  two  countries,  the 
postage  upon  which  shall  not  be  collected  by  the  country  furnish¬ 
ing  the  packet. 

5th.  The  above  mentioned  rate  to  cover  all  postage  chargeable 
upon  international  letters  to  any  post  office  within  either  country, 
and  that  any  further  rate,  imposed  for  packet  service  for  the  trans¬ 
port  of  a  letter  beyond  the  country  to  a  foreign  or  colonial  port, 
shall  not  exceed  that  charged  upon  letters  of  the  subjects  of  either 
country, 

6th.  That  each  country  shall  grant  to  the  other  the  conveyance 
of  closed  mails  through  its  territories  in  Europe  or  America.  The 
rate  of  postage  to  be  charged  on  such  correspondence  shall  be  the 
same  as  that  levied  on  ordinary  transit  letters,  except  that  it  shall 
be  taken  by  the  net  weight  and  by  the  ounce;  the  ounce  to  be 
charged  as  two  single  rates,  in  addition  to  25  per  cent,  on  the 
amount  of  postage,  to  compensate  the  loss  that  would  otherwise  be 
sustained  by  this  mode  of  computation. 

7th.  That  optional  payment  of  postage  shall  be  established  on 
letters  between  the  United  States  and  British  North  America,  upon 
rates  to  be  agreed  upon;  this  arrangement,  not  to  be  affected  by 
the  Post  Office  Department  in  the  North  American  provinces,  being 
placed  under  colonial  management. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

V  ^  '  s  f  •  1  '  .  ■  r  •  v  -  ■  a 

October  23,  1847. 

My  Dear  Lord:  I  have  received  your  lordship’s  note  of  the  22d, 
and  its  enclosure. 

I  regret  that  you  have  put  it  in  my  power  to  send  home,  by  the 
Washington  to-morrow,  nothing  more  than  a  memorandum,  instead 
of  a  postal  convention,  duly-completed. 

I  am  ready  at  any  moment  to  sign,  and  put  into  immediate  opera¬ 
tion,  a  convention  on  general  terms  of  entire  reciprocity,  as  ex- 


27 


[30] 

pressed  in  the  commercial  convention  of  1815,  leaving  each  country 
to  regulate  respectively  its  inland  postage  and  transit  rates,  but  ap¬ 
plying  uniform  rates  to  packet  ships  and  letters  of  both  countries. 

And  I  am  also  ready,  whenever  it  may  suit  Jour  lordship’s  plea¬ 
sure,  to  give  continuous  attention  to  the  questions  of  transit  and 
other  rates,  if  the  mode  of  adjustment  by  fixed  rates,  jointly  agreed 
upon,  is  preferred  by  your  lordship. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

7  '  * 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston. 

United  States  Legation, 

90  Eaton  Square ,  October  22,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipoten¬ 
tiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  had  the  honor,  on  the  12th 
of  July  last,  and,  more  fully  on  the  10th  of  August  last,  to  make 
overtures  to  Yiscount  Palmerston,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary 
of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  for  a  postal  arrangement  between  the 
United  States  and  the  United  Kingdom. 

The.  undersigned  has  this  day  received,  directly  from  her  Ma¬ 
jesty’s  postmaster  general,  a  memorandum  upon  the  subject  to  be 
communicated  to  his  government.  Pending  the  negotiation,  it  is 
right  that  the  status  of  the  two  parties  should  be  equal.  Yet  the 
undersigned  is  apprised  that  the  order,  No.  9,  issued  by  the  gene¬ 
ral  post  office  in  June,  1847,  by  which  a  discriminating  double 
postage  is  levied  upon  letters  conveyed  in  American  mail  packets 
from  the  United  States  to  the  United  Kingdom,  and  from  the  Uni¬ 
ted  Kingdom  to  the  United  States,  continues  to  be  enforced  . 

The  free  intercourse  by  letters  between  more  than  fifty  millions 
of  people,  whose  mother  tongue  is  the  English,  and  of  whom 
nearly  one-half  dwell  on  the  western  side  of  the  Atlantic,  is  of 
such  moment  to  general  commerce,  inteinational  friendship,  pri¬ 
vate  affection,  and  to  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  cultivated 
world,  that  even  a  temporary  restriction  of  that  freedom  may  well 
demand  the  serious  attention  of  all  who  desire  to  cherish  relations 
of  amity  between  kindred  nations. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  deep  regret,  that  the  undersigned  feels  him¬ 
self  compelled  to  protest  against  the  post  office  order  in  question. 

I.  As  the  act  of  a  department  of  her  Majesty’s  government, 
without  the  warrant  of  a  British  statute. 

It  is  true  that  Lord  Palmerston,  in  his  note  of  the  27th  August, 
following  a  letter  which  he  had  received  from  that  department,  in¬ 
sists  that  u  the  act  of  the  3d  and  4th  Victoria*  expressly  declares, 
that  all  letters  not  weighing  more  than  half  an  ounce,  which  shall 
be  transmitted  by  the  post  between  the  United  Kingdom  and  the 
United  States  of  North  America,  shall  be  chargeable  with  an  uni¬ 
form  rate  of  one  shilling;  and  the  71st  section  of  the  same  act 
provides,  that  the  expression  by  the  post  shall  be  understood  as  in- 


28 


[30] 

eluding  transmission  of  post  letters  by  packet  boats. ”  But  the  de¬ 
clarations  of  law,  to  which  Lord  Palmerston  refers,  evidently  relate 
to  the  British  packet  service,  and  do  but  regulate  the  duties  of 
British  postage.  Great  Britain  might  as  well,  by  act  of  parlia¬ 
ment,  regulate  the  duties  of  postage  within  the  United  States,  as 
regulate,  by  act  of  parliament,  the  sea  rates  chargeable  for  con¬ 
veyance  in  American  packet  boats  upon  the  great  and  common 
highway  of  the  nations. 

And  if  the  schedule,  referred  to  in  the  act  above  mentioned,  is  to 
be  applied  to  American  packet  boats,  the  post  office  order  in  question 
contravenes  the  act;  for  it  levies  a  second  postage  when  one  has 
already  been  paid;  thus  making  the  rate  charged  between  the  Uni¬ 
ted  States  and  the  United  Kingdom  two  shillings,  for  what  the  act 
referred  to  declares,  shall  be  but  one  uniform  rate  of  one  shilling. 

Or,  did  the  British  legislature  seriously  intend,  by  law,  to  trans¬ 
fer  exclusively  to  its  own  exchequer  the  whole  return  for  the 
packet  service  of  foreign  nations  sending  packets  to  her  ports?  The 
supposition  that  parliament  can  have  so  intended  is  not  to  be  en¬ 
tertained;  for  that  intention  would  have  been  inconsistent  with 
equity  and  with  international  rights.  In  confirmation  of  the  opin¬ 
ion  that  such  was  not  the  intention  of  the  legislature,  the  under¬ 
signed  appeals  confidently  to  Lord  Palmerston  himself,  who  was  at 
that  time  one  of  its  members,  and  to  his  colleagues  of  that  day,  in 
the  ministry,  and  in  parliament. 

II.  But,  even  if  the  letter  of  the  act  of  3d  and  4th  Victoria,  Cap. 
96,  should  seem  to  authorize  the  imposition  of  a  discriminating 
double  postage,  the  undersigned  would  still  protest  against  the  pos't 
offi  ce  order  in  question,  as  of  a  most  unfriendly  character,  contrary 
to  those  principles  of  perfect  reciprocity  which  should  govern  the 
postal  arrangements  between  the  two  countries. 

Lord  Palmerston  is  well  aware  that  the  act  alluded  to  is  not  man¬ 
datory,  but  that  a  discretion  rests  with  the  lords  of  the  treasury, 
or  any  three  of  them,  with  regard  to  its  application.  The  post  of¬ 
fice  order,  to  which  the  undersigned  has  already  called  the  attention 
of  her  Majesty’s  government,  assumes,  therefore,  undeniably  the 
character  of  an  executive  act  not  required  by  law. 

The  degree  of  unfriendliness  that  has  been  manifested  will  ap¬ 
pear  from  comparing  the  rates  charged  on  the  American  mails 
brought  in  the  American  packet  to  Southampton,  and  forwarded 
from  Southampton  to  Havre,  with  those  which  the  British  govern¬ 
ment  asked,  and  accepted,  from  the  American  government,  for  the 
conveyance  from  Boston  to  St.  Johns,  in  Canada,  of  their  closed 
mails  brought  in  British  packets  to  Boston.  A  special  express  con¬ 
veyance,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  transporting  that  mail,  was  estab¬ 
lished  by  the  American  government;  and  nothing  more  than  a  rate 
of  two  pence  half-penny  for  the  single  letter  of  half  an  ounce,  or 
about  sixpence  the  ounce,  net  weight,  was  demanded,  for  a  mail 
thus  exclusively  instituted  for  that  service;  and  the  British  post 
office,  for  conveying  the  American  closed  mails  from  Southampton 
to  the  French  shore,  a  distance  less  than  half  as  great  as  the  dis¬ 
tance  from  Boston  to  St.  Johns,  with  no  unusual  speed,  and  in  the 


29  *  [  30 1 

least  expensive  .manner,  exacts  four  francs,  or,  nearly  seven  fold 
the  sum  paid  to  America  lor  more  than  twice  the  service. 

The  undersigned  further  protests  against  the  post  office  order  in 
question,  not  only  as  illegal  and  unfriendly,  but  also  as  unprece¬ 
dented.  It  is  true,  Lord  Palmerston  explains  V  that  the  United 
States  is  not  the  only  country  to  which  the  above  mentioned  act 
has  been  so  applied,  but  that  on  the  contrary,  the  regulation  by 
which  packet  postage  is  charged  upon  letters  and  newspapers  con¬ 
veyed  by  foreign  packets,  has  been  invariably  acted  upon  in  regard 
to  letters  conveyed  by  the  mail  packets  of  all  foreign  countries.” 
Now,  there  are  but  two  nations,  besides  the  United  States,  which 
convey  letters  to  this  island  by  their  own  mail  packets,  viz:  France, 
and  Belgium.  44  All  foreign  countries,”  referred  to  by  Lord  Pal¬ 
merston,  can,  therefore,  be  only  France,  Belgium,  and  America. 
Has  44  the  above  mentioned  act”  ever  been  1,4  so  *  applied ”  to  the 
mail  packets  of  France?  When,  and  where,  was  it  44  so  applied?” 
When,  and  where,  was  double  postage  levied  on  a  French  mail 
packet?  The  undersigned  has  not,  by  diligent  inquiry,  been  able 
to  discover  that  the  above  mentioned  rate  was  ever  44  so  applied” 
to  the  mail  packets  of  Fiance. 

Or,  is  it  to  Belgium  that  the  above  mentioned  act  was  44  so  ap¬ 
plied?”  It  may  be  that  once,  on  a  line  of  mail  packets  of  Bel¬ 
gium,  what  Lord  Palmerston  calls  the  ordinary  rates  of  ship  letter 
postage,  may  have  been  levied  through  mistake,  because  the  boats 
were  not  taken  to  be  mail  packets;  but  it  so,  the  error  committed 
was  readily  acknowledged  and  rectified.  But  Lord  Palmerston 
insists  44  that  the  rates  of  packet  postage,  and  not  the  ordinary  rates 
of  ship  letter  postage,”  are  chargeable  upon  letters  conveyed  by 
the  American  government  packets,  under  the  act  above  mentioned; 
and  Lord  Palmerston  proceeds  to  say,  that  44  the  last  occasion  on 
which  this  regulation  was  so  applied  happened  in  1844,  when  the 
Belgian  government,  having  established  packets  to  run  twice 
a  week  between  Dover  and  Ostend,  letters  conveyed  by  those  pack¬ 
ets  were  ordered  to  be  charged  with  precisely  the  same  rates  of 
postage  which  are  chargeable  upon  letters  conveyed  by  British  mail 
packets.” 

This  statement  is  made  by  Lord  Palmerston  with  great  precision ; 
but  the  undersigned,  in  reply  to  his  inquiries  in  respect  to  it,  is 
informed,  that  44  the  Belgian  packet  boats  did  not  begin  to  ply  be¬ 
tween  Ostend  and  Dover  till  the  month  of  March,  eighteen  hundred 
and  forty-six ,  and  that  no  difference  has  ever  arisen  between  the 
two  countries  in  reference  to  letters  transported  by  these  packet 
boats.” 

Besides,  her  Majesty’s  postmaster  general  has  himself  informed 
the  undersigned  that  the  post  office  order  in  question  is  a  novel  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  rates  established  eight  years  since.  And  the 
undersigned  begs  Lord  Palmerston  to  believe  that,  as  her  Majesty’s 
government  have  never  imposed  double  postage  to  the  injury  of  any 
nation  but  the  United  States,  so  the  post  office  order  in  question 
stands  in  striking  contrast  with  the  welcome  given  to  American 
letters  from  American  packet  boats  by  other  nations  of  Europe. 


o 


30 


[30] 


IY.  The  undersigned  further  protests  against  the  order  in  ques¬ 
tion  as  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  convention  of  3d  July, 
1815,  u  to  regulate  the  commerce  between  the  territories  of  the 
United  States  and  of  his  Britannic  Majesty, 5:1  which  convention  pro¬ 
vides,  that  u  no  higher  or  other  duties  or  charges  shall  be  imposed 
*  *  *  *  ‘in  the  ports  of  any  of  his  Britannic  Majesty’s  territo¬ 

ries  in  Europe  on  the  vessels  of  the  United  States,  than  shall  be 
payable  in  the  same  ports  on  British  vessels;”  and  further,  that 
u  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  #  *  *  *  shall  pay  no  higher 

or  other  duties  or  charges  on  the  importation  or  exportation  of  the 
cargoes  of  the  said  vessels,  than  shall  be  payable  on  the  same 
articles  when  imported  or  exported  in  the  vessels  of  the  most 
favored  European  nations.” 

The  undersigned  is  here  constrained  to  ask  if  the  few  shillings 
which  have  been  thus  far  exacted,  and  which  continue  to  be 
exacted  by  the  British  post  office,  as  sea  rates  upon  letters  which  it 
did  bring  over  sea,  are  a  compensation  for  the  creation  of  even 
temporary  impediments  in  the  way  of  commercial,  social,  and 
scientific  correspondence,  between  nations  speaking  the  same  lan¬ 
guage,  and  bound  to  amity  by  the  highest  considerations  of  regard 
for  civil  and  commercial  freedom. 

The  undersigned,  notwithstanding  his  former  notes  to  Lord  Pal¬ 
merston  on  this  subject  have  failed  to  obtain  redress,  could  not 
•witness  the  continued  exaction  of  double  postage  on  letters  con¬ 
veyed  by  American  steamers,  without  entering  his  protest.  Mean¬ 
time  he  is  ever  ready  to  contribute  his  efforts  towards  completing, 
without  delay,  with  her  Majesty’s  government,  a  postal  arrange¬ 
ment  which  shall  place  the  mail  service  of  the  two  countries  on  the 
footing  of  perfect  reciprocity. 

The  undersigned  avails  himself,  &c. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

Foreign  Office,  December  21,  1847. 

The  undersigned,  her  Majesty’s  principal  secretary  of  state  for 
foreign  affairs,  has  the  honor  to  inform  Mr.  Bancroft,  envoy  extra¬ 
ordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  of 
America  at  this  court,  that  her  Majesty’s  government  have  had 
under  their  consideration  Mr.  Bancroft’s  note  of  the  22d  'of  October 
last,  renewing  his  representations  against  the  rate  of  postage 
charged  upon  letters  conveyed  to  the  United  Kingdom  by  the 
American  mail  packets;  and  the  undersigned,  having  communicated 
with  the  department  of  the  post  office,  begs  leave  to  make  the  fol¬ 
lowing  observations  upon  Mr.  Bancroft’s  note. 

In  the  first  place,  the  undersigned  has  to  observe,  that  Mr.  Ban¬ 
croft  designates  the  rates  levied  by  the  British  post  office  upon  let¬ 
ters  conveyed  in  the  American  mail  packets  to  and  from  Great 
Britain,  as  audiscriminating  double  postage.”  But  the  undersigned 


31 


[30] 

has  been  informed  by  the  postmaster  general  that,  in  point  of  fact, 
the  postage  in  question  is  levied  not  as  a  discriminating  duty,  but 
in  accordance  with  the  plain  enactment  of  the  statute,  as  the  under¬ 
signed  has  already  explained  in  his  note  to  Mr.  Bancroft  of  the  27th 
of  August  last;  which  statute  would  be  equally  applicable  to  cor¬ 
respondence  conveyed  under  similar  circumstances  by  the  packets 
of  other  countries,  except  in  those  cases  which  have  been  specially 
provided  for  by  treaty. 

Mr.  Bancroft  states  that  unfriendliness  towards  the  United  States 
has  been  shown  by  the  charge  of  postage  of  which  he  complains, 
and  that  this  will  appear,  if  the  rates  of  postage  which  are  charged 
on  the  mails  brought  in  the  American  packets  to  Southampton,  and 
forwarded  from  thence  to  Havre,  are  compared  with  the  rates  of 
postage  which  her  Majesty’s  government  asked  and  accepted  from, 
the  United  States  government  for  conveying  from  Boston  to  St. 
Johns,  in  Canada,  the  closed  mails  brought  in  British  packets  to 
Boston.  But  upon  this  the  undersigned  must  beg  to  state 
that  the  rate  of  postage  to  be  paid  by  Great  Britain  for  the  convey¬ 
ance  of  British  letters  through  the  United  States  to  Canada,  was 
made  the  subject  of  a  previous  negotiation  between  the  post  offices 
of  the  two  countries,  and  that  this  transit  rate  was  fixed  without 
any  regard  to  the  inland  rates  of  postage  charged  in  the  United 
States;  the  Postmaster  General  of  the  United  States  having  ex¬ 
pressly  declared  that  the  terms  which  he  demanded  were  based  upon 
the  agreement  which  had  been  made  between  Great  Britain  and 
France  for  the  conveyance  of  the  Indian  mails  through  the  French 
territory;  and  it  appears  to  the  undersigned  that  the  misconception 
which  has  arisen  in  regard  to  the  supposed  unfriendliness  of  the  act 
of  the  British  post  office,  to  which  Mr.  Bancroft’s  note  refers,  might 
have  been  prevented,  if  the  Postmaster  General  of  the  United. 
States,  instead  of  taking  for  granted  that  no  postage  would  be 
levied  in  the  United  Kingdom  upon  the  correspondence  conveyed 
by  the  steam  packet  u  Washington,”  had  taken  measures  to  settle 
that  matter  by  coming  to  a  previous  understanding  with  the  British 
post  office. 

And  with  regard  to  the  rates  of  postage  which  are  charged  for 
the  conveyance  from  Southampton  to  Havre,  of  that  portion  of  the 
mails  brought  by  the  u  Washington”  which  is  destined  for  France, 
the  undersigned  has  to  inform  Mr.  Bancroft  that  those  rates  were 
not  recently  imposed  for  the  first  time,  but  were  fixed  some  years 
ago  by  a  convention  between  the  British  and  French  post  offices; 
and  therefore  the  amount  of  those  rates  cannot  be  adduced  as  evi¬ 
dence  of  an  unfriendly  spirit  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  towards 
the  United  States.  The  authorities  of  the  British  post  office,  how¬ 
ever,  entirely  disclaim  having  been  actuated  by  any  such  spirit;  and 
they  say  that  if  the  British  post  office  has  hesitated  to  jailer,  at  once, 
a  law  which  has  afforded  great  facilities  to,  and  has  led  to  a  vpst  in¬ 
crease  of,  the  correspondence  between  the  two  countries,  it  was 
from  no  unfriendly  feeling  towards  the  United  States,  but  from  con¬ 
siderations  connected  with  the  administration  cf  the  British  Post 
Office  Department. 


32 


[30] 

Mr.  Bancroft  compares  the  post  office  arrangements,  subsisting 
between  Great  Britain  and  France,  and  between  Great  Britain  and 
Belgium,  with  the  post  office  arrangements  of  Great  Britain  in  re¬ 
gard  to  the  United  States;  but  the  undersigned  begs  to  observe 
upon  this,  that  the  position  of  the  British  post  office  in  regard  to 
France  and  Belgium  is  by  no  means  similar  to  its  position  in  re¬ 
gard  to  the  United  States,  inasmuch,  as  France  and  Belgium  bear 
an  equal  share  with  Great  Britain  in  providing  packets  for  the  post 
office  service,  and  have  entered  into  agreements  with  the  British 
post  office  as  to  the  rates  of  postage  to  be  charged;  whereas  Great 
Britain  has  long  borne  singly  the  heavy  cost  of  the  packet  service 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  while  the  advantages 
derived  from  that  service  have  been  shared  equally  by  the  people  of 
both  countries. 

The  undersigned  observes  that  Mr.  Bancroft  has  expressed 
doubts  of  the  accuracy  of  the  statement  contained  in  the  note 
from  the  undersigned  of  the  27th  of  August,  to  the  effect,  that 
the  regulation  by  which  packet  postage  is  charged  upon  letters  and 
newspapers  conveyed  to  England  by  the  mail  packets  of  foreign 
countries,  has  not  been  now  applied  for  the  first  time  in  the  case  of 
the  letters  and  newspapers  conveyed  by  the  United  States5  packets, 
but  that,  on  the  contrary,  such  a  charge  was  made  in  regard  to  the 
correspondence  brought  into,  or  despatched  from,  the  United  King¬ 
dom,  by  packet  boats  established  by  the  Belgian  government  to  run 
twice  a  week  between  Osterul  and  Dover. 

With  regard  to  this  matter,  Her  Majesty’s  Postmaster  General 
has  informed  the  undersigned,  that  in  August,  1844,  the  Belgian 
government  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  southeastern  railway 
company,  to  run  their  vessels  between  Dover  and  Ostend  twice 
a  week,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  additional  mails  between  Eng¬ 
land  and  Belgium,  and  those  vessels  being  thus,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  u  Belgian  packet  boats,”  all  letters  brought  by  them  be¬ 
came  legally  liable  to  the  same  packet  rates  of  postage  as  letters 
conveyed  by  the  regular  British  packets;  and  the  letters  brought 
by  those  Belgian  packet  boats  were  charged  accordingly. 

But  another  instance,  in  which  the  rates  of  British  packet  postage 
were  charged  in  England  upon  the  correspondence  of  a  foreign 
country,  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  packet  communication  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  kingdom  of  Sweden.  The  expense  of  that 
communication  was  borne  jointly  by  the  two  countries,  but  the 
packet  vessels  were  provided  by  Sweden;  and,  nevertheless,  the 
correspondence  conveyed  by  those  vessels  was  charged  in  this 
country  with  full  British  packet  rates  of  postage. 

Again,  in  the  present  packet  communication  between  Great 
Britain  and  France,  each  country  employs  its  own  packets  for  the 
conveyance  of  its  own  mails;  but  the  British  post  office  has  always 
levied-  the  same  amount  of  postage  upon  the  letters  brought  by  the 
French  packets  as  upon  those  conveyed  by  its  own  vessels. 

The  undersigned  trusts  that  these  instances  will  suffice  to  convince 
Mr.  Bancroft  that  the  regulation,  under  which  the  letters  brought 
to  the  United  Kingdom  by  the  American  contract  packets  have 


33 


[30] 

been  charged  with  postage,  has  not  been  applied  to  those  letters 
invidiously,  nor  in  an  unfriendly  spirit,  but  that  it  has  been  inva¬ 
riably  acted  upon  with  respect  to  correspondence  transmitted  to  the- 
United  Kingdom  by  the  mail  packets  of  other  countries. 

The  undersigned,  in  conclusion,  has  the  hojiOr  to  state  to  Mr. 
Bancroft,  that  her  Majesty’s  government  is  ready  to  negotiate  a 
new  post  office  treaty  with  the  United  States,  upon  a  liberal  basis, 
with  a  view  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both  countries,  and  for  the 
promotion  of  the  general  interests  of  international  and  commercial 
intercourse;  but  her  Majesty’s  government  cannot  undertake  to 
recommend  that  the  existing  law  respecting  packet  postage  should 
be  altered,  until  her  Majesty’s  government  shall  have  maturely- 
considered  the  various  points  which  the  proposed  treaty  should  em¬ 
brace,  nor  until  Great  Britain  shall  have  obtained,  by  treaty,  some 
advantages,  in  return  for  the  sacrifices  which  she  is  prepared  to 
make  by  the  modification  of  those  existing  laws. 

The  undersigned  has  the  honorj*  &c., 

PALMERSTON. 

George  Bancroft,  Esq.,  #c.,  fyc. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde . 

3  o’clock,  Monday,  February  7. 

Mr.  Bancroft  has  the  honor  to  enclose  for  the  Marquis  of  Clanri¬ 
carde  the  memorandum  of  which  his  lordship  wished  a  copy. 

Will  Lord  Clanricarde  do  Mr.  Bancroft  the  favor  to  send  him  a 
complete  copy  of  the  postal  convention  with  France,  and  the  seve¬ 
ral  supplementary  for  its  modification  or  execution'?  Mr.  Bancroft 
sent  to  Washington  the  copy  with  which  Lord  Clanricarde  had  al¬ 
ready  furnished  him. 


[Enclosed.] 


Extract  of  Mr.  Johnson’s  letter  to  Mr.  Bancroft ,  dated  January  12, 

1848.  • 


*  *  If  these  terms  are  acceded  to,  then  the  United  States 

would  undertake  to  transport  all  letters,  &e.,  from  the  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  or  its  dependencies,  from  the  office  in  which  they  are 
deposited  to  their  destination,  or  to  the  office  within  the  United 
States  nearest  the  place  of  destination,  upon  the  same  terms  and 
conditions,  and  with  the  same  spe^d,  that  letters  from  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States  are  now  or  hereafter  may  be  taken  between 
the  same  places;  and  it  would  be  expected  that  the  British  govern¬ 
ment  would  likewise  transport  in  their  mails  letters,  &c.,  from  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  or  Territories,  which  were  so  deposited 
in  any  of  their  offices,  to  their  place  of  destination,  upon  the  same 
3 


34 


[30J 

terms  and  conditions,  and  with  the  same  speed,  that  letters,  &c., 
from  her  Majesty’s  subjects  are  now  or  hereafter  may  be  trans¬ 
ported  in  the  British  mails  between  the  same  places. 

*  *  •  *  *  *  *  *  * 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

G.  P.  O.,  February  10,  1848. 

Dear  sir:  I  have  considered,  and  have  conferred  with  the  chan¬ 
cellor  of  the  exchequer  upon  the  counter  propositions  transmitted 
to  you  by  the  Postmaster  General  of  the  United  States,  in  reply  to 
those  we  had  the  honor  to  submit  to  you,  and  particularly  upon 
that  which  is  referred  to  in  the  extract  from  Mr.  Cave  Johnson’s 
letter  which  you  have  been  so  good  as  to  send  me. 

To  that  proposition,  viz:  that*  letters  sent  from  one  country 
should  be  treated,  upon  their  arrival  in  the  other,  upon  precisely 
the  same  terms  as  the  inland  letters  of  the  latter  country,  we  can¬ 
not  agree.  We  should  thereby  gain,  upon  making  the  alteration  in 
cur  law  which  you  desire,  nothing  for  the  advantage  of  the  com¬ 
mercial  world,  or  the  public  of  the  two  countries. 

Great  Britain  established  regular  and  steam  packets  for  the  cor¬ 
respondence  across  the  Atlantic,  at  considerable  risk  and  at  great 
expense.  In  1839  we  lowered  the  rates  of  postage  between  Eng¬ 
land  and  America,  voluntarily;  and  the  law  you  wish  to  change  was 
passed  with  the  approbation  of  the  American,  quite  as  much  as  of 
the  British  public.  We  are  ready  to  change  that  law,  in  order  to 
gain  increased  facilities  for  the  correspondence  of  the  two  coun¬ 
tries.  But  we  think  it  essential,  in  making  any  change,  to  secure 
for  the  public  optional  pre-payment,  and  a  reduced  and  uniform  rate 
of  postage. 

As  the  proposition  to  which  I  refer  is  the  most  important  of  any, 
I  need  not  now  advert  to  the  others  you  mentioned  to  me. 

The  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  myself  had  hoped  that  the 
mode  by  which  we  proposed  to  attain  the  objects  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  would  have  been  as  well  received  at  Washington  as  we 
flattered  ourselves  it  was  by  you;  and  that  we  might  easily  have 
agreed  upon  the  remaining^oints  for  a  convention,  which  in  such 
case  might  have  been  concluded  without  further  delay  than  that 
which  official  forms  would  have  required. 

But  as  there  appears  to  be  a  reluctance  upon  the  part  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  United  States  to  accept  our  propositions,  it  will  be 
necessary  for  me  to  place  them  upon  record,  by  transmitting  them 
in  the  usual  form  through  the  treasury  to  the  foreign  office.  And 
I  cannot  abandon  the  hope  that,  upon  reconsideration,  Mr.  Cave 
Johnson  will  advise  the  acceptance  of  a  proposal  which  is  calcula¬ 
ted  to  confer  upon  the  commercial  world  on  both  sides  of  the  At¬ 
lantic  great  and  permanent  advantages. 

I  remain,  &c., 

CLANRICARDE. 

Hon.  George  Bancroft,  5rc.,  fyc. 


35 


[30] 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

90  Eaton  Square,  February  11,  1848. 

My  lord:  The  interview  to  which  your  lordship  invited  me  on 
Monday  last,  did  not  prepare  me  for  the  abrupt  termination  pf  our 
direct  negotiation,  as  announced  to  me  in  your  note  which  I  re¬ 
ceived  late  last  night,  and  in  which  your  lordship  refuses  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  reciprocity  as  the  basis  of  a  postal  convention  with  the 
United  States. 

You  decline  the  proposition  that  letters  sent  from  one  country 
should  be  treated,  upon  their  arrival  in  the  other,  upon  precisely 
the  same  terms  as  the  inland  letters  of  the  latter  country,  and  at 
the  same  time  you  insist  on  maintaining  your  own  present  high 
rates  of  postage  on  transit  letters  taken  across  the  channel.  That 
is  to  say^you  decline  a  postal  arrangement  with  the  United  States, 
unless  where  British  postage  is  low,  you  may  raise  it  on  American 
correspondence,  and  where  British  postage  is  very  high,  you  may 
retain  it  as  it  is;  and  you  further  claim  that  British  correspondence 
shall  be  carried  from  Boston  to  Austin,  or  Jefferson  city,  or  Asto¬ 
ria,  from  one  end  of  a  continent  to  the  other,  at  the  same  rate  at 
which  you  carry  letters  through  the  limited  and  densely  peopled 
regions  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

This  creates  surprise.  Still  more  am  I  surprised  at  your  lord¬ 
ship’s  assigning  as  a  reason  for  your  refusal  to  agree  to  Mr.  John¬ 
son’s  proposition,  that  by  acceding  to  it  nothing  would  be  gained 
for  the  a  dvantage  of  the  commercial  world.  Now,  in  point  of  fact, 
Mr.  Johnson’s  proposition,  as  conveyed  by  me  to  your  lordship, 
doubles  the  opportunities  of  correspondence,  and  reduces  the  rate 
of  postage  twenty  per  cent.,  or  even  thirty-three  and  one-third  per 
cent.  At  the  same  time  it  offers  no  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the 
system  of  optional  pre-payment. 

I  will  add,  that  my  desire  to  promote  the  comfort  and  interest  of 
the  commercial  world  and  the  public  of  the  two  countries,  is  the 
leading,  not  to  say  the  sole  motive  of  my  urging  this  negotiation 
to  an  immediate  settlement.  The  interests  of  the  American  post 
office  revenue  I  regard  as  subordinate. 

You  allude  to  the  fact  that  Great  Britain  was  the  first  to  establish 
regular  packets,  as  though  that  circumstance  should  give  Great 
Britain  an  advantage  in  the  negotiation.  The  British  packet  ser¬ 
vice  between  America  and  Great  Britain  is  as  old  as  the  importance 
of  the  British  American  colonies.  It  goes  far  back  into  the  last 
century,  and  perhaps  farther,  and  used  to  be  a  very  heavy  burthen 
on  the  British  treasury.  A  few  years  ago  you  improved  the  ser¬ 
vice  and  defrayed  the  expenses  of  it  out  of  the  United  States  cor¬ 
respondence,  of  which  the  United  States  permitted  you  to  be  the 
sole  carriers.  We  now  intend  to  be  joint  carriers.  By  the  cus¬ 
tom  of  nations,  which  forms  international  law,  by  the  municipal 
laws  of  England  and  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  the  postal  service  is  a  function  of  govern- 


36 


[30] 

ment.  Between  independent  nations  it  can  have  no  foundation  but 
reciprocity. 

You  are  quite  right  as  to  my  views,  when  you  refer  to  my  desire 
to  establish  a  reduced  and  uniform  rate  of  postage  between  Amer¬ 
ica  and  Great  Britain,  coupled,  you  will  keep  in  mind,  with  such 
a  reduction  of  the  transit  rates  of  postage  as  should  make  England 
the  channel  of  communication  with  the  European  continent.  From 
Boston  to  St.  Johns,  from  New  York  to  the  Canadian  line,  is  as 
far  as  from  Southampton  to  Ostend,  or  from  Liverpool  to  Havre  or 
Boulogne.  I  endeavored  with  all  the  earnestness  in  my  power  to 
persuade  you  to  make  England  the  great  medium  of  communica¬ 
tion  between  America  and  the  European  continent.  I  pointed  out 
to  you  a  double  advantage  to  Great  Britain  from  adopting  such  a 
course:  1st.  To  English  trade;  for  if  England  is  the  regular  chan¬ 
nel  through  which  American  correspondence  with  the  continent 
passes,  more  of  it,  and  consequently  more  of  American  commerce 
will  remain  in  England;  and,  2d.  The  British  post  office  revenue, 
for  it  is  plain  that  to  share  in  carrying  the  correspondence  of  Ame¬ 
rica  to  the  European  continent  would  largely  increase  that  revenue. 

These  arguments,  and  the  proposition  founded  on  them,  on  my 
pa~t,  of  a  reduced  and  uniform  rate  of  postage,  you  rejected.  I 
abandon,  therefore,  as  as  I  told  you  on  Monday,  all  attempts  to  in¬ 
duce  you  to  reduce  your  transit  rates,  and  I  leave  the  subject  to 
your  own  laws  and  your  own  views  of  your  own  interest.  In 
like  manner  I  invite  you  to  leave  the  American  government  to  fix 
its  own  inland  rates,  accordingto  the  nature  of  its  widely  extended, 
thinly  peopled  country,  with  its  roads  new  or  unfinished,  or  prim¬ 
itive,  and  sometimes  all  but  impassable;  with  its  inland  seas  which 
are  several  times  wider  than  the  British  Channel;  with  its  rivers, 
which  are  mail  routes,  and  which,  from  source  to  mouth,  are  longer 
than  the  distance  from  Liverpool  to  Boston.  We  have  fixed  those 
inland  rates  on  liberal  terms,, and  are  now  preparing  to  reduce 
them.  Let  the  reduction  be  left  to  the  judgment  and  liberality  of 
the  American  people.  Do  you,  also,  on  your  part,  establish  your 
own  inland  rates,  according  to  the  system  which  perfect  roads  and 
a  limited  and  every  where  densely  peopled  territory  incline  you 
to  establish. 

To  the  postal  communication  between  England  and  America 
there  are  three  parts:  the  inland  British  service,  the  inland  Ameri¬ 
can  service,  and  the  sea  service.  The  service  on  the  sea  is  identi¬ 
cally  the  same  for  both  parties;  the  respective  inland  service  is 
widely  different. 

I  repeat  to  your  lordship  this  offer: 

Let  Great  Britain  establish  its  own  inland  rates  and  transit  rates 
as  it  will,  making  them  the  same  for  correspondence  by  British  or 
American  packets.  Let  America  establish  its  own  inland  rates  and 
transit  rates  as  it  will,  making  them  the  same  for  correspondence 
by  American  or  British  packets.  Let  there  be  one  uniform  sea 
rate  of  seven  pence,  or  any  sum  you  may  prefer,  not  much  exceed¬ 
ing  seven  pence,  with  option  of  pre-payment. 

As  you  name  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  in  your  note,  be 


37 


[30] 

good  enough  to  acquaint  him  with  this  my  reply,  which  I  intend 
as  official.  There  is  no  need  of  referring  this  subject  back  again  to 
the  United  States.  My  powers  are  full,  and  if  you  please,  I  shall 
myself  be  glad  to  receive  and  to  consider  your  reply. 

I  remain,  &c., 

22.  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

\The  Marquis  of  Clanricarde,  #c.,  ^rc. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

G.  P.  O.,  February  14,  1848. 

Dear  Sir:  It  will  give  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and 
myself  sincere  regret  if  the  negotiations  between  her  Majesty’s 
government  and  that  of  the  United  States  sh  >uld  terminate  with¬ 
out  the  conclusion  of  a  convention  beneficial  to  the  American  and 
British  people.  And  it  is  only  because  we  have  been  much  disap¬ 
pointed  in  finding,  by  your  late  proposition,  that  we  had  really 
made  no  progress  by  our  personal  communications,  that  I  have 
proposed  to  you  to  revert  to  the  more  formal  and  generally  more 
tedious  course  of  regular  official  routine. 

The  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  myself  believed  that,  after 
our  various  interviews  and  discussions,  we  had  come  to  an  agree¬ 
ment  with  you  upon  the  principal  points  to  be  decided.  Your  let¬ 
ter  to  me,  of  the  18th  of  last  October,  says:  u  We  have  on  our 
side  sufficiently  considered  your  lordship’s  suggestions,  made  on 
Monday  last,  and  if  you  are  prepared  to  enter  on  the  adjustment 
of  the  transit  routes,  we  are  ready  to  act  definitively  upon  the  whole 
subject.”  And  on  the  23d  of  the  same  month,  you  say:  u  I  regret 
that  you  have  put  it  in  my  power  to  send  home  by  the  Washing¬ 
ton  to-morrow,  nothing  more  than  a  memorandum,  instead  of  a 
postal  convention.”  We  therefore  flattered  ourselves  that  the 
66  suggestions”  alluded  to  have  been  as  well  approved  upon  further 
consideration,  as  they  had  been  received  by  you  after  our  discus¬ 
sions;  that  if  the  memorandum  in  which  they  were  recorded  had 
been  converted  into  a  convention,  you  would  have  been  ready  to 
sign  it,  and  that  the  only  delay  necessary  for  the  perfecting  a  con¬ 
vention  containing  those  propositions,  was  that  which  we  re¬ 
quired  for  the  consideration  of  the  transit  rates,  and  of  the  postage 
upon  correspondence  between  the  United  States  and  the  British 
North  American  provinces. 

But  in  our  late  interview,  and  in  the  letter  I  had  the  honor  to 
receive  from  you  on  Friday  evening,  you  entirely  set  aside  those 
propositions,  and  you  revert  to  the  demand  you  made  last  summer, 
namely:  that  we  should  alter  our  existing  law,  and  should  levy  no 
other  rate  than  our  ordinary  inland  postage  upon  letters  arriving 
in  American  packets,  without  securing  either  reduction  or  unifor¬ 
mity  in  the  entire  charge  to  be  made  upon  the  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  the  two  countries. 

To  that  demand  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  I  cannot 
advise  her  Majesty’s  government  to  accede.  We  ask  for  a  uniform 


38 


[30] 

rate,  of  which  the  inland  postage  shall  be  equally  divided  between 
the  two  countries,  and  the  sea  rate  shall  be  paid,  to  whichever 
country  the  packet  in  which  the  letters  may  be  conveyed  may 
belong;  and  we  propose  to  reduce  the  rates  as  far  as  in  our  opin¬ 
ion  the  nature  of  the  service  to  be  performed  will  allow.  By  our 
plan,  a  person  might  put  a  letter  into  any  post  office  in  either  counc! 
try,  and  might  be  certain  that  it  would  be  forwarded  to  whatever 
post  office  in  the  other  country  it  might  be  directed,  pre-paid,  or 
the  postage  paid  on  delivery,  at  his  option.  In  such  a  proposal,  I 
can  see  no  u  refusal  of  the  basis  of  reciprocity .” 

We  are  anxious,  likewise,  to  establish  perfect  reciprocity  in  re¬ 
gard  to  closed  mails  and  the  transit  rates,  and  rates  between  the 
United  States  and  our  North  American  provinces.  If  you  are  now 
disposed  to  admit,  as  the  basis  of  the  arrangement,  those  proposals 
which  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  I  understand  to  have 
been  accepted  by  you  at  the  commencement  of  the  winter,  we  shall 
be  happy  to  proceed  with  the  negotiation  from  that  point. 

I  remain,  &c., 

CLANRICARDE. 

The  Hon.  Geo.  Bancroft,  #c.,  fyc. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Clanricarde. 

90  Eaton  Square,  February  15,  1848. 

My  Dear  Lord:  Late  last  night  I  received  your  favor  of  the 
14th.  I  will  begin  my  reply  by  quoting  an  extract  from  a  despatch 
I  wrote  home  immediately  after  our  interview.  UI  met  the  post¬ 
master  general  at  his  own  request  and  by  his  own  appointment  on 
Monday.  I  began  the  discussion  with  adverting  to  the  sea  rate  of 
postage,  which  I  invited  him  to  fix  at  seven  pence  or  eight  pence 
the  letter  of  a  half  ounce,  or  less.  Ten  pence  he  declared  to  be 
the  lowest  sea  rate  he  could  agree  to,  and,  considering  the  cost  of 
the  service,  he  estimated  that  charge  moderate.  As  to  the  inland 
rates,  to  the  proposition  to  let  each  country  arrange  them  for  itself, 
*  *  *  he  said  the  British  government  had  never  made  a 

convention  on  that  basis,  but  he  saw  no  reason  why  it  should  not. 
******  *  *  *  The  interview, 

which  was  an  hour  long,  was  every  way  agreeable.  Lord  Clanri¬ 
carde  was  frank  and  fair  in  his  statements;  professed  his  desire  to 
settle  the  convention  without  seeking  any  advantage,  and  without 
delay;  and  he  gave  due  weight  to  all  suggestions  made  by  me,  or 
derived  from  the  paper  of  the  Postmaster  General.77  I  hope,  my 
lord,  I  have  done  no  injustice  to  your  views  in  this  report  of  them. 

To  a  part  of  your  lordship’s  note  you  will  find  a  full  reply,  not 
more  in  my  note  of  last  Friday,  than  in  the  preamble  to  the  propo¬ 
sitions  which  I  sent  you  on  the  sixth  of  October  last. 

Mr.  Hobbie  and  I,  during  his  stay  in  London,  in  October,  gave 
up  our  whole  time  to  the  consideration  of  our  proposed  postal  con¬ 
vention.  We  were  prepared  to  act  definitively,  and  were  greatly 
^disappointed  that  you  uniformly  avoided  arranging  the  transit  rates- 


39 


[30] 

through  England.  When  we  met  you  on  Monday,  the  lltli  of  Oc¬ 
tober,  you  declared  yourself  unprepared  to  discuss  the  transit 
postage.  On  Tuesday,  the  19th,  you  avowed  yourself  still  unable 
to  meet  our  views  by  a  proposition.  Perceiving  the  post  office 
order  of  June  was  to  be  kept  in  force  indefinitely,  I  made,  on  the 
22d  May,  protest  against  it.  On  the.  same  day  I  received  from  you 
#a  paper  which,  substantially,  was  nothing  but  a  new  copy  of  the 
same  projet  to  which  you  had  already  had  my  formal  answer.  As 
you  accompanied  it  with  a  note,  hoping  that  uyou  might  consider 
us  as  agreed  upon  the  points,”  I  sent  you  at  once,  on  the  23d,  an 
answer,  of  which  you  have  quoted  only  the  first  lines.  Read  on, 
my  lord,  and  you  will  find  my  whole  meaning  expressed  as  follows: 
UI  am  ready,  at  any  moment,  to  sign,  and  put  into  immediate  opera¬ 
tion,  a  convention  on  general  terms  of  entire  reciprocity,  as  ex- 
pressed  in  the  commercial  convention  of  1515;  leaving  each  country 
to  regulate  respectively  its  inland  postage  and  transit  rates,  but 
applying  uniform  rates  to  packet  ships  and  letters  of  both  countries.” 

On  Monday,  the  25th,  referring  to  my  note  of  August  16th,  I 
asked  an  interview  of  Lord  Palmerston,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
the  matter  to  an  immediate  adjustment  on  the  simple  principle  of 
reciprocity,  thus  disembarrassing  the  question  of  all  that  was  com¬ 
plex,  and  leaving  each  country  to  make  its  own  inland  regulations 
to  apply  alike  to  correspondence  of  both  nations.  Lord  Palmer¬ 
ston  could  give  me  no  answer,  but  he  understood  me  perfectly. 

I  cannot  see  how  I  could  have  acted  more  explicitly;  or  how  it 
is  possible  for  my  views  to  have  been  open  to  misconception. 
And  how  it  was,  after  this  note  of  mine  to  you  of  October  23d,  and 
this  interview  with- Lord  Palmerston,  that  you  invited  me  to  your 
house  to  conclude  our  postal  convention  in  due  form. 

And  now  to  the  subject  itself.  As  an  individual  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  I,  in  common  with  many,  I  trust  with  a  majority., 
out  of  love  to  the  American  Union,  wish  to  see  in  the  United 
States  one  uniform  rate  of  cheap  postage.  I  believe  it  will  be 
established  as  soon  as  possible;  but  the  decision  is  with  Congress. 
As  minister,  I  can  offer  to  British  correspondence  every  advantage 
which,  now  or  hereafter,  may  be  offered  to  Americans  themselves^ 
I  cannot  offer  more. 

The  two  countries  are  planning  what,  if  carried  into  effect,  will 
be  one  of  the  most  wonderful  results  of  civilization — a  regular 
semi-weekly  postal  intercourse  by  steam  across  the  Atlantic  be¬ 
tween  the  kindred  people  of  England  and  America.  I  hope  this 
great  enterprise,  so  fraught  with  the  elements  of  public  happiness, 
friendship,  and  prosperity,  is  not  be  embarrassed  by  your  fear  of 
making  u sacrifices'''’  in  admitting  us  to  our  undoubted  right,  and 
by  your  attempting  to  gain  advantages  in  a  postal  convention. 
There  is  no  ground  for  it  in  equity.  The  light-house  charges  alone, 
whch  England  puts  upon  our  ships,  and  which  America  does  not 
put  upon  English  ships,  are  incalculably  greater  in  amount  than  all 
the  gains  you  could  derive  from  any  postal  treaty  with  us  that  you 
could  devise. 

I  am  sorry  to  write  so  long  a  letter.  My  motive,  in  wish- 


40 


[30] 

ing  this  matter  brought  promptly  to  a  close  on  the  basis  I  have 
offered,  rests  on  my  disposition  to  consult  the  opinions  and  in¬ 
terests  of  the  commercial  men  and  the  public  of  the  two  countries. 
That  basis — presented  to  her  Majesty’s  government  in  my  note  of 
August  16;  renewed,  as  “the  simple  reciprocity  arrangement,”  in 
our  projet  sent  you  October  ft;  repeated  in  my  note  to  you  of  Oc¬ 
tober  23d;  enforced  in  my  interview  with  Lord  Palmerston,  on  Oc¬ 
tober  29th;  approved  by  Mr.  Johnson,  in  his  letter  of  January  12th, 
1848;  brought  again  before  you  in  my  interview  of  February  7th; 
re-stated  in  my  note  of  the  15th,  and  now  annexed  to  this  note  in 
detail — is,  in  my  judgment,  the  best  possible  for  British  interests, 
and  the  only  perfectly  fair  and  practicable  one.  I  hope  your  lord- 
ship  will  view  it  as  every  one  does  from  whose  experience  I  have 
sought  light.  Your  lordship’s  candor  must  pronounce  it  unobjec¬ 
tionable. 

I  remain,  &c., 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

The  Marquis  Clanricarde,  &c. 


[Enclosure.] 

Reply  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  postmaster  general ,  to  the 
propositions  of  the  British  postmaster  general ,  for  a  postal  con¬ 
vention  made  on  the  22d  of  October ,  1847. 

The  American  government,  in  its  postal  arrangements  with  her 
Majesty’s  government,  agrees  in  desiring  the  greatest  facilities  for 
correspondence  between  the  two  countries;  seeks  to  diminish  rather 
than  increase  the  present  rates  of  postage;  and  offers  and  accepts 
“  principles  of  perfect  reciprocity,”  as  the  basis  of  an  arrangement. 

The  service  requires  inland  carriage  in  America,  sea  conveyance, 
and  inland  carriage  in  the  British  isles. 

The  sea  conveyance  is  the  same  for  both.  The  inland  carriage  dif¬ 
fers  in  distance;  and,  from  difference  in  density  in  population,  in  cost, 
and  in  productiveness.  The  distance  from  Liverpool  to  the  re¬ 
motest  point  in  the  British  isles  is  but  a  few  hundred  miles.  From 
Boston  to  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  Galveston,  and  Austin,  is  further, 
by  the  mail  routes,  than  from  London  to  Constantinople,  Smyrna, 
and  Cairo.  Many  post  offices  in  the  United  States  are  as  far  asun¬ 
der  as  the  whole  breadth  of  the  Atlantic.  The  river  course  from 
Pittsburgh  to  New  Orleans  is  a  mail  route,  thronged  with  mail 
boats  every  day;  and  the  distance  is  greater  than  the  distance  from 
Halifax  to  the  United  Kingdom.  The  regular  mail  route  from 
Boston  to  New  Orleans  uses  steamboats  twice  or  three  times,  and 
each  time  for  a  distance  many  times  greater  than  across  the  British 
channel.  The  line  from  Boston  or  New  York  to  St.  Johns,  passes 
over  Lake  Champlain  for  a  distance  greater  than  the  distance  be¬ 
tween  England  and  France,  or  England  and  Belgium.  A  postage 
in  America  of  two  cents,  of  five  cents,  or  of  ten  cents,  according 
to  distance,  leaves  the  post  office  still  a  burthen  on  the  treasury. 


41 


[30] 

Her  Majesty’s  government  is  fully  aware  of  these  things;  it  has  in¬ 
troduced  the  penny  postage  in  Great  Britain,  but  not  in  Canada. 

Reply  to  the  first  proposition. 

Each  country  shall  establish  its  o^vn  inland  rates;  and  letters  sent 
from  one  country  shall  be  received,  and  treated  in  the  offices  of 
the  other,  as  letters  originating  in  the  latter  country. 

There  shall,  in  addition  to  such  inland  rates,  be  one  uniform  sea 
rate,  of  which  the  British  government  may  fix'the  amount. 

The  American  government  would  prefer  the  sea  rates,  as  follows: 

On  single  letters,  under  half  an  ounce,  one  uniform  sea  rate  of 
seven  pence  half-penny,  or  fifteen  cents. 

On  newspapers,  periodicals,  and  pamphlets,  one  uniform  rate  of 
one  half-penny  the  printed  sheet  or  ounce;  but  editors  and  pro¬ 
prietors  of  newspapers  might  exchange  papers  free  of  postage. 

N.  B. — As  two  cents  are  a  very  little  less  than  a  penny,  if 
America  collects  at  two  cents  the  penny,  and  England  in  sterling 
money,  England  should  account  to  America  at  484  cents  the  pound 
sterling,  and  America  to  England  at  480  cents  the  pound  sterling; 
one  shilling  being  24}  cents,  and  a  pound  being,  not  480  cents,  but 
484  cents. 

Reply  to  the  second  proposition. 

The  payment  of  this  sea  rate  shall  be  optional  in  either  country; 

Or,  the  respective  inland  rates  may  be  combined  with  the  sea 
rate,  and  the  payment  of  the  whole  combined  rate  may  be  made 
optional  in  either  country; 

Or,  if  the  British  government  takes  ten  pence,  or  twenty  cents, 
as  the  sea  rate,  the  combined  rate  between  Liverpool  or  South¬ 
ampton  and  New  York,  or  Liverpool  and  Boston,  may  be  twelve 
pence  only,  or  twenty-four  cents,  viz:  ten  pence  for  the  sea  rate, 
and  one  penny  inland  rate  for  each  country.  For  letters  sent  for¬ 
ward  in  America,  some  further  inland  postage  is  required  by  the 
nature  of  the  American  continent,  as  explained.  But  that  further 
sum  might  be  charged  and  collected  in  America,  and  the  British 
government  have  no  trouble  about  it. 

Reply  to  the  third  proposition. 

Whatever  postage  is  made  optional  is  to  be  accounted  for.  The 
sums  representing  the  sea  rate  shall  belong  to  the  country  by  which 
the  packet  conveying  the  letter  shall  be  furnished.  The  sums  rep¬ 
resenting  the  respective  inland  rates,  shall  belong  to  the  respective 
countries  performing  the  inland  services. 

Reply  to  the  fourth  proposition. 

Each  country  shall  account  to  the  other  according  to  the  actual 
number  and  amount  of  postages. 


[30] 


42 

Reply  to  the  fifth  proposition. 


On  letters  destined  for  countries,  foreign  or  colonial,  the  country 
receiving  and  transmitting  the  letter  shall  charge,  in  Jieu  of  inland 
postage,  the  transit  postage  that  would  be  charged  upon  letters  for 
the  same  destination,  and  postgd  by  residents  at  the  place  where 
the  packet  may  arrive. 

Reply  to  the  sixth  proposition. 

Each  country  shall  grant  to  the  other  closed  mails;  the  rate  of 
postage  to  be  charged  on  such  correspondence  to  be  the  same  as 
that  levied  on  ordinary  transit  letters. 

Reply  to  the  seventh  proposition . 

Optional  payment  of  postage  may  be  established  between  the 
United  States  and  British  North  America. 


Lord  Clanricarde  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

General  Post  Office, 
February  18,  1848. 

Dear  Sir:  I  regret  very  much  that  your  letter  of  the  15th 
instant  holds  out  no  hopes  of  our  being  enabled  to  resume  our 
negotiations. 

You  inform  me  that  the  sanction  of  Congress  would  be  necessary 
for  the  acceptance  of  the  proposition  made  by  the  chancellor  of  the 
exchequer  and  myself.  But  we  cannot  doubt  that,  if  asked  by  the 
executive  government,  such  sanction  might  easily  be  obtained. 
The  President  has  already,  in  his  late  speech,  recommended  that 
additional  power,  in  regard  to  postal  regulations,  should  be 
entrusted  to  the  proper  authorities. 

The  objection  taken  to  our  proposal  by  the  Postmaster  General 
of  the  United  States,  is  specious,  but  it  is  not  solid.  Experience 
has  proved — what  indeed  it  is  easy  to  comprehend — that  a  calcula¬ 
tion  of  the  distances  which  letters  may  be  carried,  gives  no  just 
measure  of  the  cost  of  postal  arrangements.  The  transport  of 
mail  bags  is  but  a  small  portion  of  the  expenses  of  a  well  organized 
post  office;  and  the  comparison  made  by  Mr.  Johnson  between  the 
territorial  extent  of  the  American  Union,  and  that  of  the  British 
isles  cannot  be  fairly  instituted — as  affecting  the  question  in  hand — 
unless  Mr.  Johnson  can  show,  that  throughout  the  entire  of  the 
United  States,  the  post  office  system  is  as  perfect  as  it  is  in 
England. 

Be  that,  however,  as  it  may,  it  is  not  upon  any  comparison  of 
service,  or  loss,  or  of  profits  to  either  country,  that  the  chancellor 
of  the  exchequer  and  I  rest  the  proposition  we  have  had  the  honor 


43 


[30] 

to  submit  to  you.  Neither  do  we  make  any  claim  for  England  on 
account  of  the  efforts  by  which  the  present  facilities  of  communi¬ 
cation  have  been  obtained.  We  seek  no  partial  advantage.  We 
offer  reciprocal  and  general  benefits.  We  have  considered  solely 
how  we  could  attain  the  greatest  amount  of  accommodation  for  the 
public  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  with  due  regard  to  the  expenses 
which  must  be  incurred. 

This  is  the  basis  upon  which  we  have  framed  our  proposal;  and, 
being  fully  convinced  that  it  is  the  best  calculated  to  effect  the 
purpose  professed  by  both  governments  alike,  to  that  proposal  we 
must  adhere. 

If,  therefore,  it  is  not  within  your  power  to  renew  our  negotia¬ 
tions  by  an  acceptance  of  the  uniform  and  equally  divided  inland 
rate,  and  of  the  packet  rate  to  be  equally  levied  and  equitably 
paid — which  we  have  proposed — I  have  no  alternative  but  to  trans¬ 
mit,  in  official  form,  through  the  treasury  and  the  foreign  office,  the 
offer  we  have  made,  and  by  which  we  must  advise  her  Majesty’s 
government  to  abide. 

I  remain,  &c., 

CLANRICARDE.' 

The  Hon.  George  Bancroft. 


Mr.  Bancroft  to  Lord  Palmerston. 

•  90  Eaton  square, 

2\st  February ,  1848. 

The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipo¬ 
tentiary  of  the  United  States  of  America,  begs  leave  to  call  the 
attention  of  Viscount  Palmerston,  her  Britannic  Majesty’s  principal 
secretary  of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  to  the  proposition  for  a 
postal  convention,  which  he  had  the  honor  to  address  to  Lord  Pal¬ 
merston,  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  August,  in  the  year  1847,  and  to 
which  his  lordship  has  not  made  reply. 

This  delay,  on  the  part  of  her  Majesty’s  government,  enables  the 
undersigned  to  communicate  to  Lord  Palmerston  a  memorandum 
which  defines  more  precisely  some  points  in  the  proposition  referred 
to;  and  he  requests  Lord  Palmerston  to  attach  this  memorandum 
to  his  letter  of  the  16th  of  August  last,  and  to  take  it  into  con¬ 
sideration  in  connexion  with  that  proposition.  ' 

The  undersigned  takes  occasion  to  urge  Lord  Palmerston  to  make 
an  early  and  definitive  answer  ;  and  he  has  the  honor,  &c. 

GEORGE  BANCROFT, 
Viscount  Palmerston,  &c.,  &c.,  &c. 


[30] 


44 


[Enclosure.] 

Memorandum  :  To  be  considered  in  connexion  with  Mr.  Bancroft1  $ 
note  to  Viscount  Palmerston ,  of  16M  August ,  1847. 

The  American  government,  in  a  postal  arrangement  with  her 
Majesty’s  government,  desires  the  greatest  facilities  for  corres¬ 
pondence  between  the  two  countries;  seeks  to  diminish  rather  than 
increase  the  present  rates  of  postage  ;  and  offers  principles  of  per¬ 
fect  reciprocity  as*the  basis  of  an  arrangement. 

The  service  requires  inland  carriage  in  America;  sea  conveyance; 
and  inland  carriage  in  the  British  isles. 

The  sea  conveyance  is  the  same  for  both.  The  inland  carriage 
diffeFs  in  distance;  and,  from  difference  in  density  of  population,  in 
cost,  and  in  productiveness.  The  distance  from  Liverpool  to  the 
remotest  point  in  the  British  isles,  is  but  a  few  hundred  miles. 
From  Boston  to  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  Galveston,  and  Austin,  is 
further,  by  the  mail  routes,  than  from  London  to  Constantinople, 
Smyrna,  and  Cairo.  Many  post  offices  in  the  United  States,  are  as 
far  asunder  as  the  whole  breadth  of  the  Atlantic.  The  river 
course  from  Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans,  which  is  but  a  part  of  one 
of  the  great  thoroughfares  between  the  north  and  New  Orleans,  is 
a  mail  route,  thronged  with  mail  boats  every  day  ;  and  the  distance 
is  greater  than  the  distance  from  Halifax  to  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  regular  mail  route,  from  Boston  to  New  Orleans,  uses  steamboats 
twice  or  three  times,  and  each  time  for  a  distance  many  times 
greater  than  the  distance  across  the  British  channel.  The  line 
from  Boston  or  New  York  to  St.  Johns,  passes  over  Lake  Cham¬ 
plain  for  a  distance  greater  than  the  distance  between  England  and 
France,  or  France  and  Belgium.  A  postage  in  America  of  two 
cents,  of  five  cents,  or  of  ten  cents,  according  to  distance,  leaves 
the  post  office  still  a  burthen  on  the  treasury.  Her  Majesty’s 
government  is  fully  aware  of  these  things;  it  has  introduced  the 
penny  postage  in  Great  Britain,  but  not  in  Canada. 

It  is,  therefore,  proposed  by  the  American  government : 

1st.  That  each  country  shall  establish  its  own  inland  rates;  and 
letters  sent  from  one  country,  shall  be  received  and  treated  in  the 
offices  of  the  other  as  letters  originating  in  the  latter  country. 

There  shall,  in  addition  to  such  inland  rates,  be  one  uniform  sea 
rate,  of  which  the  British  government  may  fix  the  amount.  The 
American  government  would  prefer  the  rates  as  follows  : 

On  single  letters,  under  half  an  ounce,  one  uniform  sea  rate  of 
seven  pence  half-penny,  or  fifteen  cents. 

On  newspapers,  periodicals,  and  pamplets,  one  uniform  rate  of 
one  half-penny  the  printed  sheet  or  ounce. 

But  editors  and  publishers  of  newspapers  might  exchange  papers 
free  of  postage. 

N.  B.  As  two  cents  are  a  very  little  less  than  a  penny,  if  America 
collects  at  two  cents  the  penny  and  England  in  sterling  money, 
England  should  account  to  America  at  484  cents  the  pound  sterling, 
and  America  to  England  at  480  cents  the  pound  sterling;  one  shil- 


45  [  30  ] 

ling  being  24}  cents,  and  a  pound  being  not  480  cents,  but  484 
cents. 

2d.  The  payment  of  this  sea  rate  shall  be  optional  in  either 
country  ; 

Or,  the  respective  inland  rates  may  be  combined  with  the  sea 
rate,  and  the  payment  of  the  whole  combined  rate  may  be  made  op¬ 
tional  in  either  country  ; 

Or,  if  the  British  government  takes  ten  pence  or  twenty  cents  as 
the  sea  rate,  the  combined  rate  between  Liverpool  or  Southampton 
and  New  York,  or  Liverpool  and  Boston,  maj  be  twelve  pence 
only,  or  twenty-four  cents,  viz  :  ten  pence  for  the  sea  rate,  and  one 
penny  inland  rate,  for  each  country.  For  letters  sent  forward  in 
America,  some  further  inland  postage  is  required  by  the  nature  of 
the  American  continent,  as  explained.  But  that  further  sum  might 
be  charged  and  collected  in  America,  and  the  British  government 
have  no  trouble  about  it. 

3d.  Whatever  postage  is  made  optional  is  to  be  accounted  for. 
The  sums  representing  the  sea  rate  shall  belong  to  the  country  by 
which  the  packet  conveying  the  letter  shall  be  furnished.  The 
sums  representing  the  respective  inland  rates  shall  belong  to  the 
respective  countries  performing  the  inland  services. 

4th.  Each  country  shall  account  to  the  other  according  to  the 
actual  number  and  amount  of  postages. 

5th.  On  letters  destined  for  countries  foreign  or  colonial,  the 
country  receiving  and  transmitting  the  letter  shall  charge,  imlieu  of 
inland  postage,  the  transit  postage  that  would  be  charged  upon  let¬ 
ters  for  the  same  destination,  and  posted  by  residents  at  the  place 
where  the  packet  may  arrive. 

6th.  Each  country  shall  grant  to  the  other  closed  mails;  the  rate 
of  postage  to  be  charged  on  such  correspondence  to  be  the  same 
as  that  levied  on  ordinary  transit  letters. 

7th.  Optional  payment  of  postage  may  be  established  between 
the  United  States  and  British  North  America. 


<• 


